Science of the Soul
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Manipal · 2024
Chapters
Introduction to Krishna consciousness as science
Om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, Om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, Om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, nārāyaṇam namaskṛtya, naram caiva narottamam, devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ tato jayam udīrayet. So Hare Krishna.
Welcome to this evening where I will speak as I was requested on how Krishna consciousness is a science. Of course, it's a very vast subject matter, and I will only be able to scratch on the surface of this subject.
But nevertheless, I will try to give certain food for thought for you students. Actually, I read Bhagavad-gītā for the first time in my life in 1980. Uh the time when many of you were not born yet.
And uh the first impression which I had, and of course at that time I was very far away from any sort of spirituality, I was a scientist, I was an atheist.
Uh not only was I an atheist, my parents were atheist, my grandparents were atheist, so I was a traditional atheist, at least in the third generation.
And from my childhood, uh I was taught that there is no God and uh that we are human beings, we went to space and we didn't see God, so that's a proof that He is not there.
So and And yes, I was uh envisioning my life as being a research scientist. Uh I was very much fascinated by the molecular biology, genetics.
And I was doing some sort of genetical engineering in a very inceptional stage, of course, at that time. And uh later it became the genome project where they deciphered the whole genome of the human being.
My scientific guide was one of the pioneers in this field.
Rational approach of the Bhagavad-gita
But when I read Bhagavad-gītā by some coincidence, of course we know there's no coincidence, it's just a name for some higher science. I was struck with the notion that Bhagavad-gītā is not just some religious book.
That this is a book which is talking about truth and talking about truth in a very scientific way.
One of the most striking characteristics of Bhagavad-gītā is that Krishna doesn't say if you don't believe me, you will go to hell.
Krishna doesn't make all these famous religious claims, you know, just believe in me and then you will be saved. No, Krishna says do whatever you like, but think first and then do.
Krishna is trying to impress upon us that we should think deeply about the nature of reality and not rush into making decisions because the consequences of our choices and decisions can be very grave.
And Krishna provides a system, a very rational and liberal system. And he says, you may accept it, you may reject it, it's up to you. You're free to do it.
You're a free citizen, no problem, you're a student, you know, nobody can deprive you your rights to accept or reject this. But you think. So that's exactly the proposition of science.
Science doesn't insist that you have to believe into something. Of course, science is also based on beliefs. Science is based on certain axioms, and axioms by definition is something you have to accept.
Axioms is not provable. You cannot prove axioms.
Axioms you have to accept, but at the same time, axioms, you know, can be rationally understood and uh uh but uh while accepting certain propositions, after accepting certain propositions
or certain suppositions or certain uh premises, uh then Then you have to see how by accepting these propositions, the reality matches to the picture which is derived from this. So that's what science is.
Certain things in science are not provable. You know, science cannot prove science cannot even define what is time. Time is just there. You know, but take it for granted. Science cannot define what is space.
Science is space. Space is there. Science cannot define what is energy. Size cannot define what is mass. Can anyone of you give definition of mass? What is mass?
You know you can only put it on a scale and you know compare it with some m you know mm some piece of metal which is stored somewhere in France. That's the definition. Or mainly not in France. I don't know. Where is it?
Greenwich somewhere there. So you know you just accept certain things, take it for granted, and then from there you develop the system which is uh mm being proved as practical, as reasonable, as logical.
So uh and basically uh that's what it is uh with this This is exactly the case with Bhagavad-gītā. In Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna says there is soul. And that's it, bas.
You cannot do anything about it, you cannot argue about it. You either accept it or reject it. But you try to accept it and see what happens. How, if you accept it, how the picture of the world will become very logical.
So that's exactly the impression which I had when I read Bhagavad-gītā. It's a science. It's a science but science which is based on a completely different set of premises.
Not the science which I know, not the science which I follow, not the science which I pursue. It's a science, but it's a different science.
And of course, you know, even though I was moved, as Suvarnagauharis said, I was moved profoundly, I was moved by Bhagavad-gītā. But I was not in a hurry to believe in it. I didn't have compelling reason to believe in it.
And what I did, I started comparing the science and explanatory power of science with the proposed worldview which was given in Bhagavad-gītā.
And science can explain something, but science cannot explain many things which are there.
Hard problem of consciousness in science
So I was trying to see which system can explain more of the reality. One of the greatest mysteries of science is the nature of consciousness.
You know, scientists, material scientists take it for granted, that consciousness is somehow or other is an epiphenomenon, is some phenomenon which is uh which is coming from the electric impulses from the brain.
You know, we have neurons and uh there are around eighty billion neurons in your little brain. And this uh each and every neuron can make a connection with around 1000 or 2,000 other neurons.
And then somehow or other, like genie from the Aladdin's lamp, the consciousness pops out. You know, but starts with the electric impulses. You know, the electric impulses goes, goes, goes, goes. Oh now you see.
I see you, I see this picture, I see this.
You know, the point is that even though the neuroscientists they know how the brain works, they know great details of how the brain works, they cannot make explanation of the most simple conscious experience.
You know it's one thing if the electric impulses are, you know, shrieking there and here and there and you know neurons.
But you know how after that, you know, there are many electric impulses there, but uh nobody is conscious just just making this electric impulses. How this notion that I see comes about.
And not only I see, I see this color and I see this and I taste this, you know, taste. How this comes?
This is called, the scientists call it hard problem of consciousness. And not without reason, they call it hard problem of consciousness, they call it hard problem of consciousness because they cannot figure out how is it.
The consciousness is something very mysterious and they say somehow or other it appears.
There are different theories how consciousness appears from this electric activity of cells, but actually ultimately in all these uh theories the ultimate end is that you know some magic wound should be there.
Somehow or other. Somehow or other.
You know, some say, you know, some say uh that they're called um how they call Some say that there is some uh consciousness even in atoms and when many atoms come together then the consciousness appears.
Some say some other things. So all these things are not very easily to be proven. You know, and so many other things. I I I was a scientist. I mean I'm still a scientist, but I'm a completely different scientist.
I'm not I'm from a different academy of science. So uh what I want to say is that I was trying to compare this system with another system.
And I knew very well that in every in whatever system you accept, you will have to believe certain things. Certain things you will have to accept.
So I was trying to compare these two systems, and ultimately I came To a conclusion that you know the Bhagavad-gītā works better. That Bhagavad-gītā is much more complete and much more comprehensive system of knowledge than the existent uh system of knowledge which is there. And it can explain more phenomena in more coherent way, in more cohesive way, in a more harmonious and more rational even way than the modern science.
So that was my first impression after first reading of Bhagavad-gītā and there was a long long internal search for truth. When I was trying to understand how it works and what it works. So that's a little introduction to this topic that I will be talking about science, but a completely different science, not the same science which we used to.
Modern neuroscience and fundamental consciousness
But I will try to explain you know how this is a great science of consciousness. And interestingly enough, there are scientists, very few of them, and a very advanced scientist.
One of them is Donald Hoffman, who say after he is a he's a neuroscientist and he is the specialist on visual perception. He is his topic, his subject matter, is how the visual perception takes place, how we can see.
And he, after you know, many, many years, decades of studying this, he actually says that I came to a conclusion that consciousness is fundamental.
That this is something which you cannot question, and consciousness is not a result of this brain activity. It's fundamental. In fact, the brain activity is a result of consciousness.
And that's, you know, you can be you can choose the way of Donald Hoffman and you know spend few decades of studying this and come to this conclusion.
Or you can just read Bhagavad-gītā and come to this conclusion immediately. It's a shortcut. But ultimately, if you're honest, if you're really and if you're really searching for truth, you will come to this conclusion.
You will reject all this reductionist and physicalist uh concocted idea of the nature of reality because consciousness consciousness is something fundamental.
Consciousness is more fundamental according to the science of Bhagavad-gītā than the space and time. Consciousness is before that.
Consciousness is the source of everything, and it's a fact, the space, time, and everything else which we see is a result of consciousness.
But it doesn't mean that it is just a subjective reality, that is no objective reality. No, no. Uh Bhagavad-gītā is not you know teaching some stupid modern ideas that this is just imagination and uh illusion.
No, it's it's an illusion, but it's a different kind of illusion. It's a very tangible illusion, unfortunately, which is very difficult to destroy. But uh again, uh uh it's a big subject matter.
I will take a simple subject matter. I will take the subject matter of the nature of soul, which is the atom of consciousness, and I will try to explain how Bhagavad-gītā tackles this particular problem.
So I will read one verse from Bhagavad-gītā because being the spiritual scientist, we have to quote the authorities.
You know, like in normal science you have to quote this article from the science journal or from Nature or from some other reputed journals and of course they always change and they always give different ideas.
Bhagavad-gītā is a scientific book which is 5,000 years old, and there is not a single change in this theory within 5,000 years.
Verse on the indestructible soul
So let's see what Krishna says. We have to rely on something which is very authoritative. That is the words of Krishna.
I will read the verse and a little part of the some part of the purport that's a very long purport. Let's chant together. Avinashi to Tadvidhi. This is uh 2.17 of Bhagavad-gītā, second chapter 17th verse.
Yana Sarvamidam tatam, Yana Sarva Midam tatam Vina Vinasham avyayasyasya, nakašit kartu marhasi, kartu marhasi, avinashi tu tadvidhi, yana sarvamidam tatam, tatam, vinasam avyaasyasyan, avyaasyasam, nakait kartu Marhati. Nakashit kartu Marhati.
So Krishna gives a very makes a very interesting proposal, proposition. That which pervades the entire body, you should know to be indestructible.
So the consciousness, your conscious experience, the fact that you're experiencing, you're sensing, you're seeing, you're smelling, you're touching.
So that ability which pervades all the body because all the body has this ability to experience something, something which is a great mystery for the science, something which science cannot explain.
This very fact, Krishna says, that this consciousness which pervades your body is indestructible. It's eternal. He says it's fundamental. It's actually the same conclusion which Donald Hoffman comes to.
It's something more fundamental than time and space, something from which everything else emanates.
And Krishna says, avināśi tu tadviddhi. You should know tadviddhi that this is avināśi which is indestructible, yenā sarvam idaṁ tataṁ, which pervades idaṁ, this body, by which all this body is pervaded.
yenā sarvam idaṁ tataṁ. vināśam avyayasya asya. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul. cannot destroy the agent which is experiencing. You can destroy the body.
You can destroy certain functions of your experience, but you cannot destroy the experiencing object which is the soul which is the atom of consciousness so that's the axiom of spiritual science.
That's a very important axiom.
Atomic size and spread of consciousness
And Śrīla Prabhupāda explains very beautifully how this axiom, even though it's not provable, and many people would reject it from this from the beginning, uh still it's very plausible. So let's let's read how Prabhupada beautifully explains this.
And this verse more clearly this verse more clearly explains the real nature of the soul, which is spread all over the body. Anyone can understand what spread all over the body is consciousness.
Everyone is conscious of the pains and pleasures of the body. In a part or as a whole. The spreading of consciousness is limited within one's own body. The pains and pleasures of one body are unknown to another.
Therefore, each and every body is the embodiment of an individual soul and the symptom of the soul's presence is perceived as individual consciousness.
The soul is described as one tenth thousandth part of the upper portion of the hair point in size. Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad controls. Bālāgra-śata-bhāgasya, if you take uh one uh Uh uh uh yeah, one ball uh one strand. Yeah.
Little bala gradu. And then divided into one uh hundred parts and then divided again one hundred parts. So one ten thousand parts of the of the upper portion of the uh hair. Bhāga-jīvaḥ sa vijñeyaḥ.
Basically uh basically uh it is said that it's atomic, it's very, very small. Uh so So therefore the individual particle of spirit soul is a spiritual atom smaller than the material atoms. And such atoms are innumerable.
This very small spiritual spark is the basic principle of the material body.
And the influence of such spiritual spark is spread all over the body as the influence of the active principle of some medicine spreads throughout the body.
Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this: you take little, little, tiny part part of some medicine and immediately it has an effect all over the body or some poison or whatever.
This effect of the spirit soul is felt all over the body consciousness and it is the proof of the presence of the soul. Any layman can understand that the material body minus consciousness is a dead body.
And this consciousness cannot be revived in the body by any means of material administration. Therefore, consciousness is not due to any amount of material combination,
but to the spirit soul in the Mundaka Upanishad, and this is a very important verse which I want to explain. In the Mundaka Upanishad the measurement of the atomic soul is further explained.
Cheta savidita view, Yasmin Pranah, Panchadhadha, Panchadha, Sam Vishesha, Sam Vivesha, Pranish Chitam Sarvamatam Pragyana, Yasmin Vishudhi Viva The
soul is the atomic size, is at is atomic in size and can be perceived by perfect intelligence.
This atomic soul is floating in the five kinds of air, prana, pana, vyana, samana and nudana, is situated within the heart and spreads its influence all over the body of the embodied living entity. Entities.
When the soul is purified from the contamination of the five kinds of material air, this its spiritual influence is exhibited. So I will stop here and I will chant a little prayer.
Yon tahvishya mahvachima maampra suknam sanji vaya ta kila shakti, adah sam swadamna. Anjamatva Gadm Prananda Bhagavatam, Purušaya Dubjam, Svastu Vishwasi, Kalah praceedatam deantub deantubutani
sivan mit Hodiya Manashabadram Bajatata Doksa Javes Ytamnomati Rapya to ki. So uh I I I I want to talk a little bit about this. You know, of course sometimes devotees they think they need some more higher subject matter.
Please tell me about pastimes of Krishna and Radharani, you know. The second chapter of Bhagavad-gītā I know. But actually if you don't understand very clearly the science of consciousness, uh you will just mistaken
the pastimes of Krishna and Radharani and you will think you know why don't I become why don't I pick up some Radharani somewhere why why should I read about Krishna's pastimes? Let me do my own pastimes.
So we have to start with the proper at the proper place. And the proper place is to understand the nature of the soul.
Is to understand the nature of conscious experience and to understand how I can really experience my soul. We have to clearly understand why at this moment of time I am so much engrossed with the body.
Why am I so much dependent on the body? Why I'm so conditioned and why I cannot really feel as the soul.
Why I feel that when the body will be dead, I will also be dead, I will not exist anymore. That's the common experience which we all have.
Why do I... why do I, uh, afraid of death? You know, that's this fear of death is a very real thing in our consciousness. If I am eternal, if the soul is eternal, then why all these things take place in my consciousness.
And uh what am I supposed to do to understand deeper and not only understand, but to have the realization that I am eternal spirit soul.
Materialist attempts to achieve physical immortality
You know, Prabhupāda gives common sense logic. He says, yes, you know, we know what is the consciousness and it cannot be simulated by electric impulses.
You know, like now there is, in the material world, there is a huge project going on, very rich people who want to become immortal.
They have a project which is called—how is it called? Uh, anyway, uh, they... uh, by the year 2045, uh they want to make sure that uh uh they can be immortal.
So how do they can be immortal? They can now, you know, they... they do so many things: they edit genes, and then they can uh upload the content of your consciousness into computer and then they can simulate your body
and then, you know, after, uh, placing this, uh, consciousness from the computer, they put it into the body, and here you are, you will be immortal.
So many rich people they put billions of dollars into this project because they want to be immortal. This quest of immortality is the eternal quest of human beings.
Hiraṇyakaśipu wanted to be immortal, and he invested some... some of his living and energy into this project.
These billionaires, they're investing their money into the same problem. And the result will be the same, you know. Mahākāla will take care of that. So but they have great hopes.
Now they have hopes that, you know, they can take the content of my memory, put it into computer, and then we can make some uh then we can have uh 3D printer and by this 3D printer we can print some body and we can take this from the computer, put it there and here I am again living young and energetic.
Or they can... they... they speculating that there is some holographic figures and we will do some holographic figures, and you know, I will be just a holographic figure with some electronic memory in my brain.
And, you know, so many things. And yeah, yeah, and then, you know uh if you are afraid that you will not survive that long because many of these billionaires they're already old and you know two thousand forty five is another 20 years.
So they say no problem, there is a science of cryogenics. When you can put your body into refrigerator and it will be preserved and by the year two thousand forty five we will put it back
into this uh uh you know how you call this uh uh electric wave you know oven and after being frozen you you will become again and then we will do this. You know, it only you you can do it if you want.
You can mm you know you only need uh two hundred thousand dollars to pay, and then your body will be preserved into this big refrigerator and hopefully will be revived after some time.
But uh probably it will be quite rotten. But anyway, they have this strange ideas. Why? Why do they have these ideas? Why do they pay this enormous amount of money?
Because they want to be eternal, but also because they make this mistake. They think consciousness is just the activity of the brain. They think consciousness is just my memory.
They somehow rather mix the consciousness which is not reducible, which is fundamental, which is completely different.
From which Bhagavad-gītā starts, uh they they mix it with some activities of some material atoms and some material cells and electric impulses and you know, some ions going here and there, and uh, all kinds of stuff.
You know, no, this is the mechanism. Consciousness is completely different. And we have to first understand this, then only we can understand superconsciousness.
You know, until we understand the atomic consciousness, little consciousness which we are, we can never imagine or hope to understand superconsciousness which is Kṛṣṇa.
And if we don't understand super Kṛṣṇa consciousness of uh which is Kṛṣṇa, how we can understand the pastimes of the superconsciousness with his super energy, which is Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.
You know, you will only be mistaken. So first you start with this. Understand that I am consciousness, I am eternal. The fact that I'm conscious now is the proof that I am eternal. Krishna exactly says this.
You know, you're conscious, it means you're not material. Consciousness is not material. Consciousness is not reducible to the material activity which is taking part in the body.
Because it's a completely different, very fundamental part of the reality. Most fundamental part of the reality.
Vedic logic regarding eternal entities
And in these verses where Krishna explains f uh Śrīla Prabhupāda first explains that the the uh consciousness individual consciousness is atomic by science it's atomic and therefore it's indestructible, indestructible.
That's a very important principle of Nyaya. Nyaya Vedic logic says that in this world, whatever has parts is destructible.
By the very fact that it has parts, you know, because it has parts, it will be destroyed sooner or later. And our body has many parts. And that's the proof that the body will die. You know, King, uh what is it?
That this body will definitely fall down, that this body will be destroyed. Idam śarīraṁ śata-sandhi-jīrṇaṁ because there are so many sandhis.
There are so many different joints and, uh, these sandhis, they connect different parts. So sooner or later, you know, one after another, all these sandhis will be just destroyed.
You will find out that there is one sandhi less. You know, like sometimes you find out that there is one tooth less. So, you know, this is this is the process which is taking part in the body, and the body is doomed.
Body cannot be eternal. But Nyaya says that there are only two things which are eternal. One is atomic. If it's atomic, it's eternal because it cannot be destroyed. It's too small to be destroyed. It it has no parts.
And another one is unlimited. Unlimited things they also don't have parts and they're they're also not destroyed.
So Krishna says and Srila Prabhupada explains that the soul, the individual soul, is atomic and therefore it cannot be destroyed, and Supersoul, Krishna himself, is unlimited and therefore, he cannot be destroyed. So there are two eternal things.
Everything else is not eternal. And Srila Prabhupada explains this point.
He says that the soul is atomic, and then he explains very interestingly by quoting this verse from Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad, which I will explain in details, how the soul is interacting with the body.
You know, it's one thing to believe that soul exists. As Prabhupada says, any sane man can understand that when the body dies, you know, something is missing.
You know, it's not that, you know, some people think, you know, you you you add something to this body and the body will be revived again. No, it's something fundamental is missing. You know, the soul is leaving the body.
Those people who had near-death experience, they explained it very vividly.
They said, you know, we have seen the body, we have seen the you know the nurses and doctors who were trying to revive this body. They can explain in all details what they were doing, they can explain in all details what they were telling each other.
Sometimes again scientists try to explain all this near-death experience as the agony of the brain, which somehow or other creates the illusion of still existing because the brain wants to survive
and then it creates this illusion. You know, but there are so many near-death experiences which prove completely against this hypothesis.
Like first of all people it's not an illusion because people really being unconscious they really know what's going on, who is talking what. You know, they can explain when they're coming back.
And you know, they can explain something which is outside, which they didn't have a chance to see. You know, there was one near-death experience which was experienced by one blind boy. He was blind from his birth.
And then he has never seen anything in this world because he was born blind. You know, when he had near-death experience, he started seeing.
He went and and then he saw that there is some construction going on in the hospital, everything else, and then he came back into his blind body and he explained everything which he has seen being outside of the body.
Which he couldn't, which he couldn't imagine. His brain couldn't produce this, and very accurately he explained everything which was there, which was going on. So there are so many experiences of this.
But again, Prabhupada says it's common sense. But people, you know, there is a very good saying that common sense is not very common.
So you know, even though it's a common sense principle that there is conscious element in the body which is different from the body itself, and because it's different from the body itself, we can actually see
and observe our body. Even in this life, we can look from the outside and observe. We can observe what is going on within our brain, we can estimate whether it's good or bad, we can control it to a certain extent.
The consciousness is different from the body. But people uh have a very hard time to believe it. It's very difficult. They still don't believe it.
They still think, you know, no, no, consciousness is just produced from the brain. When the body is dead, I am dead. There's no chance.
Upanishadic description of soul and prana
So let's see how this beautiful verse from Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad explains this science. So it is said here that this aṇur ātmā, this atomic ātmā, this atomic soul, the word ātmā in Sanskrit is very beautiful.
The word ātmā is derived from the verbal root dhātu aṭ which means to move. Ātmā means the active principle. The body is dead.
The body is not really, you know, an active principle. The active principle of the body is the soul. It's something which moves itself and which pushes the body to move.
So the first thing which is said in this verse, Eṣo 'ṇur ātmā, Eṣaḥ āṇur ātmā, cetasā veditavyaḥ. This ātmā should be known, has to be known, was to be known, veditavyaḥ by the cetasā, by the consciousness.
So the first thing which this verse says is that you should try to understand your soul. You should try to understand the nature, the undestructible nature of your consciousness.
Though the soul is so atomic and so small and so difficult to understand, it's understandable, it can be understood.
Veditavya means it was being understood, understood and uh it should be understood and it could be understood. Yasmin prāṇaḥ pañcadhā saṁviśat. So next it is said very interestingly, please listen.
This soul is placed into the five prāṇas, into the five life airs. And it is said prāṇaiś citam sarvam otaṁ prajānām. It is said that this prāṇa is pervading all the body and all the citta, the consciousness.
It's very, very interesting. Please listen. And then I will uh explain the last uh line of this verse, and then we will in detail try to understand the concept behind it.
Then it is said that when your mind or chitta becomes clear, then you will see your ātmā.
So very interestingly, the whole mechanism of our body, how our body works, how the perception works of this world, and how the consciousness works through the body and connects and interacts with the body is explained in this one verse.
This one verse, uh you know, is it's worth of, you know, hundred Nobel Prizes. And nobody gave to Mundaka Upanishad even one Nobel Prize, but everything is there in just one verse.
It is said, yes, the soul is atomic. It can be understood by our consciousness. So, what first we have to understand about the consciousness,
about the soul, is that the energy of the consciousness, the energy of the soul is being spread through prana.
There is this life airs which are moving within our body. Five life airs: prana, samana, vyana, udana. These five life airs are spreading the conscious energy, spiritual energy, energy of the consciousness of the soul.
The soul is atomic, it's localized in one place within the heart, but its energy, which is consciousness, is spread all over the body. And it is spread all over the body through the channels, the pranic channels.
In Upanishad, it is said that there are 72,000 channels of prana coming from the heart. You know, because the heart is the location, locality, uh, locus of the soul.
And from the heart, the consciousness is spread through these channels, and when we see, and because the consciousness of the soul, which is active principle of the body, is spread throughout these channels only because of this the body exists.
You know, we see Ayurveda explains this, Chinese medicine explains this. When there is some blockages in these channels, then the blockages of these channels become the cause of diseases. Why?
Because the energy of the soul which actually makes the body alive cannot go through these channels. You know, why cancer is there? Why so many other diseases are there?
Uh Veda says it's very clear, uh very clear and very simple. Because all these subtle channels which are there in the body are being blocked.
And because it's being blocked, because the energy doesn't move through these channels, then we can see that we can experience some pain. What is pain? Pain is actually the sign of blockage.
You know why yoga is doing all these kinds of postures? Because they want to clear these channels of the energy. Because they ultimately want to clear the consciousness of the soul, to see the soul.
But for that, they have to work through this prana. They are cleaning the consciousness, chitta, uh, through prana. You know, and and and therefore these yogic postures are there.
And you can actually judge how clean your body and how clean your consciousness by how flexible your body is.
If your body is stiff, if it doesn't move, if you have pains, it means that there are so many blockages out there. And it basically means that consciousness doesn't penetrate there.
And because it doesn't penetrate in this area, there is high probability, there is 100% probability, that there will be some problem there.
You know, all the problems, all the diseases ultimately come because of only this one reason. Because there are some blockages in the consciousness.
Medical science, I'm not going to compete with them. I'm I'm not going to compete with them. They will tell me, you know, how much cholesterol you need to to block your arteries.
But arteries is just one, one sort of channels. Actually, Ayurveda says that there are a system of eight different there are eight different channeling systems which are ensuring the functioning of the body.
Interaction of soul, prana, and chitta
And, you know, ultimately the energy of consciousness is being spread through these channels of prana.
You know, because all the, all the life is they also reside within the heart, and within the heart this atomic soul is there. And this atomic soul is giving this energy of consciousness to prana.
And prana spreads this energy of consciousness all over the body, and therefore we can feel.
You know, like uh we all have this experience: if we sit for a long time in one posture and somehow or other the pranic energy doesn't go there, then this area of our body becomes numb.
You know, there is no consciousness there. You know, there is no feeling. Why? Because the consciousness of the soul does not penetrate there.
And because again, the consciousness of the soul is the basis of our life, that's why we have to really make sure that all the channels of our body are clean and that that uh the consciousness is uh flowing very freely within the body.
And that's exactly what yoga means. But this verse of Mundaka Upanishad explains something much more subtle, much more beautiful, even. So, first it is said that, uh, ātmā, soul is atomic.
Then it is said that the energy of ātmā spreads all over the body, and only in this body, and that's why we cannot really feel what other people feel. We cannot really have the conscious experience of other people.
But then it is said very interestingly: pranais chitam sarvam otam prajnam, prajanam, not Pragyanam, sorry. That Chita survived the whole chitta, the consciousness, is interwoven by the spread of by the threads of prana.
So you know we have soul, we have prana, and we have chitta. What is chitta? It is explained in the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Chitta is the material mechanism, but very subtle material mechanism.
Soul is completely spiritual. Prana is rajasic by nature, it's moving, it spreads all over the body. Chitta is very sättvik. And chitta is the mirror by which we can see the reality.
Chitta has the reflecting ability, chitta reflects the reality as much as the screen of your phone reflects the reality.
You know, when you are in this camera mode, you can see how the reality is reflected in this camera mode. So chitta is this screen of your consciousness.
And the boy, the soul is seeing what is happening on the screen of your consciousness in chitta. And chitta, as it's said here, is interwoven or it's completely, how you say, penetrated by the threads of prana.
So, in the same way, prana is called in 11th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Prana is called sutra tattva. Sutra means threads.
So, as much as this cloth is the combination of threads going in two different directions, so in the same way, chitta, our consciousness, our ability to see the world is interpenetrated by prana.
And if our prana is contaminated, then our chitta is also the reflecting ability of our chitta is also distorted. And therefore, you know, we sometimes see very distorted picture of reality.
You know, when you have very high fever, typhoid fever, uh fever. Or when you take some drugs, you know you you have all kinds of hallucinations and uh you think oh I'm seeing high reality. No, you are just hallucinating.
Why you're hallucinating? Because your prana is disturbed. And because your prana is disturbed, your chitta is disturbed.
Comparison of astanga-yoga and bhakti-yoga
And because your chitta is disturbed, you see the distorted reflection of the image of reality in the chitta. And therefore, yogic procedure is very simple.
First, you clean the channels by, you know, doing all this kind of, you know miserable yoga exercises of your body uh by the mechanical means. You know, you're just saying uh yeah, I want my channels to be clean.
You know, you're doing all kinds of stuff and i i it it helps, it works. And then you try to do uh pranayam. First āsana, then prāṇāyāma. First, of course, Yama and Niyam.
By doing Yama and Niyam, by following some very strict principles, you stop the process of contamination of your channels.
By stopping the process of contamination your channels, you have some hope, some dim hope, that you will clean the channels.
Because if you always contaminate the channels by eating all kinds of non-vegetarian garbage and uh other uh other you know chips and other you know food stuff.
If you take all kinds of garbage then you you know n no matter how much yoga you do it will not work because you will contaminate your channels in higher s with the higher speed and higher efficiency than you can clean them with your yoga exercise.
And then so therefore first yama and niyama. Yama and niyama you should, you know, ahimsa satya steya parigraha you should follow this strict discipline of living very clean life, very pure life.
And then after living pure life, you do asana, asana, you know, k clean the channels, and then by cleaning the channels, you can start doing pranayam. And ultimately, prāṇāyāma will calm down your citta.
Because again, as I said, and as it is said in this verse that citta is interwoven by prana.
And because our prana is distorted now, is disturbed, you know, our life affairs are disturbed because exams are coming and you know and uh our breathing is very uneven you know when we're nervous so
so our citta our mind is also very disturbed. We are very disturbed, citta is very disturbed, and therefore we don't see the reflections of the soul in the citta. It is explained here then only when the citta becomes calm.
Only when you do this experiment with your citta, with your consciousness, only when you systematically try to purify your citta, then at one point you will see the soul, and you will have no trace of a doubt that you are eternal spirit soul.
Until this moment, when you see in a very calm and pure citta, the reflection of your soul. You see it very clearly, as clearly as you see the world around you. Until this time, you will always have doubts.
Yeah, it sounds good but whether it's true or not I'm not so sure. So this verse is explaining the experiential path experiential procedure, how to realize the soul.
And that's exactly what Krishna is trying to explain to us. He says, I am telling you just some uh theoretical truths. But you will have to realize it yourself.
Don't think that if you read second chapter of Bhagavad-gītā you already know everything. No, you don't know nothing. You just know something little to start your experiential journey to understand the higher reality.
To have more clear perceptual mechanism to understand the truth.
You know what this verse of Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad explains that you know you can only know the truth if you purify your consciousness until and unless you purify your consciousness, your mechanism of knowing the truth, you will never be able to understand the higher truth and the higher reality.
So any spiritual discipline starts with this ABC purification procedures. You have to follow certain principles: no meat eating, no fish, no eggs, no onion, no garlic, no whatever it is nothing practically only
rice and dāl, and then you know you have to restrict your desire to enjoy not to uh contaminate your consciousness. But this is what uh is being explained here and what I explained is the yogic procedure.
Purification through chanting the holy name
Is the procedure of yoga. different. But we are following bhakti-yoga, which is completely different. But the result is the same.
Actually, Caitanya Mahāprabhu starts His Śikṣāṣṭaka prayers with this statement, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam. First you have to clean the mirror of your consciousness, of your chitta.
How we clean the mirror of our consciousness. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare. So it's a different method. In yoga you go from down up.
You go from your material body because your consciousness is so conditioned and so dependent on the condition of your body, you purify your body. Then you purify your life air.
Then you then you purify the life air purifies your mind. Your mind purifies your body.
Your body purifies your ego. Your ego purifies your prana, your prana will purify your chitta. And then only you will see something. It's a very long process.
First, body, how you purify your body by regulating your Indrias contact with the objects of this world. This is and then when the when the, mm, Indrias are purified,
the body is purified, then you can purify a little bit your mind and and then ego and the consciousness. You know, and bhakti-yoga, first thing which is said there, who you are, you are Krishna das.
Jīvere svarūpa haya nitya Kṛṣṇa-dāsa. So, in this way your ego is purified. You're not a student of such and such college, believe it or not. You're not on this great or that great or this track or that track.
You are Krishna nitya-das, your eternal servant of Krishna, that's the purification of your ego. You have to be convinced about this. That's the purification of your ego.
And of course, you have to live pure life, that's the purification of your body. And then while chanting mantra, we purify our prana. What is the most important?
Instead of doing pranayama, which is not very easy and which is a very I mean which is a very uh how shall I say this? Uh it's a very high procedure in yoga. You cannot start it on the beginning stages because you will only make harm.
We immediately try to purify the prana which penetrates our consciousness by chanting this sound vibration. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Ram Ram Hare Hare.
Grinding mercury analogy for mind control
We basically are trying to vibrate, the same vibration, the spiritual vibration, through the means of through pronouncing this, you know, we are trying to connect it with our chitta. We are trying to connect the spiritual vibration with our chitta and by connecting, by basically merging this together, we purify our chitta.
It's a different process, procedure, and, um, uh, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thakur in his commentary to Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi, uh, he explains uh that the mechanism of chanting, very important mechanism of chanting.
He says if you take sulfur and you if you take mercury and if you mix sulfur and mercury together, nothing will happen.
You know, even though sulfur and mercury they have thus some affinity with each other and they can enter into chemical reaction. But, you know, to make this reaction possible,
you have to take uh pestle and uh how you call this uh uh mortar, yeah. Mortar and pestle. You have to put some mercury and you have to put some sulfur and you start grinding it.
And you grind and grind and grind again and again and again. And at one point, by this grinding procedure, the miracle happened, sulfur and mercury come together and become one substance.
So, in the same way, our mind is like mercury. Have you seen Mercury? Mercury is very, you know, because you cannot really catch it. You know, it's you know, you try to catch it, it's already there.
In the same way our mind is like Mercury. You try to catch it, it's already in Bombay or somewhere else. You know, the mind is uh cañcalaṁ hi manaḥ kṛṣṇa, mind is very, very flickering. It's like this mercury.
And then what we do, we try to mix it with this vibration, spiritual vibration of the name of the holy name of Krishna. And the procedure of this is exactly the same as grinding the mercury in the mortar by the pestle.
Again and again and again you have to do it.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare, Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare, Hare Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare, Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare, Hare
and it at one point, when uh and and then you try to bring it back again and again and again.
You know, in the same way like you know, this m mercury, if Mercury is just phew, you know, you have to bring it back into this grinding machine of uh trying to blend it together, trying to mix it together, trying to interpenetrate uh one another.
And when the spiritual vibration of the holy name penetrates prana, then your consciousness becomes completely pure, completely clean.
Cleansing chitta and transforming material desires
And that's exactly what Caitanya Mahāprabhu says when he says ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam. This is the first effect. And it basically means that you forget all the contamination
which is there in your consciousness, it basically means that all material desires which you had becomes not very significant. You know, in our conditioned state of being or of living,
material desires are very, very strong and prominent. And material desires are very much connected with our ego. You know, I want to be this.
I want to have PhD in you know in uh artificial intelligence or in something else. I want to become this.
You know, I want to prove the world, you know, every Every teenager thinks that, you know, nobody else before me made it, but I will make it. You know, somehow or other I will conquer over this world. No, no, you will not.
Forget it. You will also be defeated. So you know ceto-darpaṇa-mārjana means, it's very important. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjana means that your desires become less intense.
Your material desires uh you know the you you look at your material desires and see what is it you know what's what's what's nonsense with this what's so what's so important about it?
And then your ego also becomes different. It changes the form. Ego means your ambitions. Ego means your goals, what you want to achieve, what you want to become. Ego basically means self-image.
You know, and we all have some, you know, very bombastic self-image. You know, I want to become this and this or whatever.
People why why people want you know that they like going to these movies, you know, because uh in these movies, you know, some I don't know, Shah Rukh Khan of what's his name? He is the hero. He is the image.
You know, I want to become like him. He's the model. What I want to follow. But uh in any case so you know I I I don't know Indian movie stars.
I only know Hema Malini, but she's already in uh in uh Lok Sabha, in Rajya Sabha, she's not a movie star anymore. But uh but the point is that uh people they have this image of them, ambitious image.
I want to become this, I want to become that, I want to project this.
And uh when you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra you m you realize I want to become I want to become servant of God. It's the most it's the highest achievement. Uh possibly be there. It's the happiest state of consciousness.
It's the happiest state of my uh and it's it's the highest ambition, there is nothing higher than this. And uh uh if I realize even a little bit of this, I immediately feel happiness.
And if I understand the futility of all these dreams which I have, I become even more happy. You know, because we are actually suffering by all these dreams, by all these completely
crazy ideas, you know, we have to do this. No, we don't have to do this. We have to live normal life and we have to become nice devotees.
And ultimately we have to come uh to this stage where our mind and uh they become one.
Spiritualizing the mind through divine contact
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare Hare.
And Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī explains in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu that at this moment when the mind and the holy name become one, when this miracle, the most amazing miracle happens, then the mind is no more material.
Now our mind is material and therefore it's so stubborn and it's so difficult to control and so many other problems are there.
But when it becomes one, uh with the spiritual vibration of the holy name, it becomes uh completely spiritualized.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda gives this example, and of course, Rūpa Gosvāmī also gave the same example that how you you put the iron within the fire. And even though the fire and the iron are completely different, if you keep it long enough, the iron becomes like fire. It becomes red hot and it assumes all the qualities of fire.
You touch with this iron to anything, it will just be inflamed. So in the same way our mind will become spiritualized by the contact, by the constant contact of the mind with the spiritual vibration of the holy name.
And ultimately this, constant contact of the spiritual vibration of the holy name with the mind is the highest achievement. It's the highest sadhana and it's the highest sadhya.
When you achieve this, then you experience the state of bhava. The state of bhava, the very elevated state of love of God, is only possible when there is no difference between mind and the holy name.
Until the difference is there, bear is there, the gap is there between the two. Until they remain separate, we're still in the beginning stages of our spiritual journey.
But when this you know interaction becomes complete, then the mind takes completely different nature, and in this clean mind you see the image of yourself very clear.
You understand who you are, you understand your spiritual functions, you understand your eternal nature, who you are eternally, not you know temporary in this world, but in your uh eternal spiritual nature and you understand uh the image of God.
You see the image of God reflected in the same citta. Therefore, yeah, therefore citta is called the place where the perfection is happening. Chitta is a very important mechanism given to us
by God because when it is contaminated, it only can lead us into this journey in this material world where we can see all the distorted images of ourselves.
But as soon as it is clean, it reflects the real image of us and it reflects the image of God.
And we see very clearly God reflected in our citta. That's the main quality of citta which is explained in 26th chapter of the third canto by Kapiladeva. Gṛhītvā. This is the main quality of citta.
It can catch the image of Bhagavān and maintain this. And therefore, in this verse, it is said, yasmin viśuddhī vihavata eṣa ātmā. At the moment when your citta becomes viśuddha, completely clear.
Completely clean, not just should he, but we should he, especially clean. Viśeṣataḥ. When it becomes completely 100% clean, then you'll see your ātmā.
So this verse basically says which Śrīla Prabhupāda put in the very beginning of Bhagavad-gītā is that you have to try to understand the spiritual nature of yourself. Āśor nu ratma cheta so How? By cleaning the mind.
And when the mind is completely clean, then you realize the nature of the soul and
and to clean the heart, to clean the mind, to clean citta, you have to chant Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.
Role of bodily exercise in bhakti-yoga
So this is my scientific presentation of Krishna consciousness. Thank you very much, Hare Krishna. Any questions? Any questions? Yes.
The first half of the lecture you were telling us about how, uh, in the different yoga processes you clean the, uh, prāṇa and therefore, uh, bring the citta to a sättvika state by different yoga vows.
Uh, I, uh, but in, um, uh, in bhakti-mārga and ISKCON we don't focus so much on doing yoga and all this stuff. You can do yoga. Prabhupāda. One disciple asked Prabhupāda, Prabhupāda, shall we do yoga?
Prabhupada says, yes, you can do yoga, but you can also do jogging. So Prabhupada was not very specific and was not very emphatic about this.
But one thing is very clear is that you have to take care of your body by doing some exercise. Because if you don't do this, the channels of your body will be clogged. They will be blocked.
So, but there are so many different methods of doing this. Yoga is of course a very nice and beautiful method, but there are this uh you know qigong and this and that. So many different methods are there.
So we're not very particular about this because we're going not from this end, not from uh bottom up, we're going from up down. So when when our consciousness is clean, then our body is also clean.
Because the main source of contamination of the body is contaminated mind.
When the mind is contaminated, we have cravings for all kinds of garbage food and we do all kinds of sinful activities which ultimately contaminate the body. So we come from this end. We try to purify the consciousness.
When the consciousness is pure, then the body will become pure. But we have to take care of the body, we have to have some common sense. It means we have to do some exercise. But not necessarily yoga. I do yoga.
I do yoga every day, uh more than one hour, but I like yoga. I I can show you some postures if you want but but it's not compulsory it's not necessary because the the
the the very process is different. In your talk you're mentioning that some millionaires want to become immortal, they don't want to stay long. But we also see other side that people want to die by committing suicides.
So recently yesterday one boy he jumped from the building. Really? In Manipal. So, uh uh it's uh normal people don't do this.
It's a psychic disease and the enormous stress which we experience, especially, you know, I know a little bit the Indian educational system, it's very stressful. It's extremely stressful.
So if the stress becomes chronic, then the stress uh turns into depression. And when depression uh takes place, it's a disease, it's a psychic disease,
psychiatric disease, and uh then you know the desire to live, which is normal for every normal human being, not only human being, every living entity wants to live, the desire to live is everywhere, it becomes distorted.
But basically, what we have, we have due to the stress, the citta becomes so distorted and contaminated. And it becomes such an uncomfortable place. You know, because we live not in the body, we live in the mind.
And when the mind becomes so depressed, it becomes very uncomfortable. It's and it's very difficult to live in such a in such mind.
You know, like when we come to some uh you know material environment which is very uncomfortable, dirty and you know gloomy. We want to leave this environment as soon as possible.
In the same way when our room of our consciousness of our mind becomes dirty and gloomy. The soul wants to leave it.
So the desire somehow or rather it's an unbearable pain to be constantly because you know you are doomed to be 24 hours a day within your mind.
And the only way to make this a happy, you know, living is to clean the mind, is to make mine a very nice place to live.
But when you uh uh you know helplessly uh went to this condition when you are in this depressed, gloomy uh state of mind, uh then then you do it. But it's abnormal, it's not normal.
Uh and it's a result of uh too much stress of uh abnormal stress. But normally people want to live eternally. Why? Because the soul is eternal.
And because people don't understand the nature of the soul, they try to somehow or other reproduce the material. You know, they they want to make this body eternal, or they want to make somehow or other the mind eternal.
But you know, body is not eternal, mind is always changeable. But the soul is eternal, we're already eternal.
And this desire to become the quest for immortality, the Upaniṣads says, or child they call uh the people, child of immortality. We're all children of immortality. We're all children of this immortal state which is full of bliss.
So we deserve to be immortal. The death is a punishment. Death is actually mistake. It's our mistake.
Subtle nature and functions of chitta
And we we have to realize how we are immortal and this is what we can do by the process of yoga and associating with people who know Bhagavad-gītā and who realize Bhagavad-gītā. Yes?
Chitta is material or chitta is material or chitta is material. Chitta is the most subtle material element within our body. So it is explained in Sankhya of Kapilad,
then the first element which is which appears after Pradhana which is very you know balanced state of three modes of material nature.
When the balance is disturbed by kala, by eternal time, then the first element is Mahatattva. It, Mahatattva, in the universal scale becomes chitta in our body. So it's the same.
It's material, but it's the most, uh, it's the most subtle and it's the most sattvic.
Chitta is sattvic, ahaṅkāra, ego is tamasic, and prana, sūtra-tattva is rajasic. So these three tattvas they are the foundational tattvas of our conditioned being.
Sattvik chitta, rajasic prana, sūtra-tattva, and tamasic ahaṅkāra-tattva. So mahat-tattva, sūtra-tattva and ahaṅkāra-tattva, these three together, they you know, from them the rest of the world produced.
The space, the sound, everything else is coming from the ahaṅkāra-tattva, which is tamasic by nature. Chitta was in the heart. And chitta is actually, you can say that chitta is our memory.
Chitta is like hard drive in the computer. You know, the hard drive is still material, it's the hard hardware of the hard drive. So all everything is stored in this hard drive.
Some of the things are more like structured and some of the things are very, you know, chaotic there.
And to some of the things you don't even have access because you forgot so many files are there, you know you already forgot about them. So there are conscious minds, subconscious mind.
The chitta is the sum total, it's the storage of all the memories. And mind, the conscious mind which we have is something which thinks.
You know, we think, you know, we make some concepts and desires are there, this I like, this I don't like, this is in the mind. So the mind is just a function of chitta.
Ultimately, the consciousness, uh conditioned consciousness of a living entity is insured or is provided by the chitta, which has this reflective ability.
But, uh, ahaṅkāra is the part of the chitta, uh, contaminating chitta. Buddhi is the rajasic part of the chitta, mind is sattvic part of the chitta. But it's all chitta, it's functions of the chitta.
So chitta is uh and therefore in yoga they don't do this discrimination. In yoga, Patanjali Muni in Yoga Sutra says Yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ. What is the goal of yoga? To clean chitta.
And clean chitta means when you clean chitta, there is nothing else, only chitta. There is no ahaṅkāra, there is no manas, there is no buddhi.
And clean chitta means very pure clean exact correct reflective ability to reflect the truth. Like clean water. In the clean water you can see the reflection of the reality very clearly. There is no distortion.
But when the water is distorted, then the reflection is also distorted.
Consciousness level determining afterlife destinations
When our mind or our chitta is distorted, then we get very distorted reflection of the reality. Not real. There are many people who are not clear or who do not have a higher plane of conscious uh consciousness.
And is it required to be require a higher plan of consciousness to go to heavens? If not, why?
And uh one has to think because there are many religions that do have like that does not have any jurisdiction on you have to eat veg or you cannot eat garlic or onion or something like that.
So I mean yeah, so but do you require a high consciousness to go to a see this this very question um betrays the uh different uh approach to spirituality.
You know, you can approach spirituality from religious point of view. And religious point of view basically means, you know, you should do this, you should not do this.
If you do this, you will go to heaven, if you don't do this, you will go to hell. And then of course there are special concessions.
If you're a rich person and you pay specially big donation, then you don't go to hell no matter what you do.
It's a religious conception which is completely unscientific. It has nothing to do with science of consciousness.
The science of consciousness very clearly says that the environment in which you exist is the creation of your mind. If your mind is hellish, you will live in hell.
It doesn't matter what this hell is called. This hell can be called Manipal, this hell can be called Moscow, this hell can be called Narak. Hell is hell. You know, because your environment is created by your mind.
If some people have hellish mind, no matter where they are, they create environment which is very hellish, very dirty, very you know, low class, and so many other things are there.
And if your mind is clean, if your consciousness is clean, then your environment also becomes clean.
And if you are if you have dirty consciousness and you are somehow rather put in a clean environment, two things can happen.
Most probably, you know, one thing, this clean environment will gradually, gradually purify your consciousness. That's possible.
But most probably by your contaminated consciousness, you will contaminate your environment. And you will make it very conducive for you to live in this environment.
You know, there was a very beautiful, reel story in New York. New York is a very dirty city. Very dirty. I've been there many times.
So there was a bus station and the bus station in New York was a specially dirty place and all these people who who are bums who don't have any uh place to live with all the garbage which they have and you know they they have you know they emanate bad smell.
They used to come to this New York uh city bus station and somehow and you couldn't drive them from there. They were living there, they were thriving there.
And you know, many times the authorities of this bus station, they were trying to clean up the bus station from all these bums, but they would inevitably be attracted again to this place and flock again. And it never worked.
So one genius manager of this bus station decided to have a trick and he started having uh beautiful classical music in the bus station and all the bums they just ran away from this place because it was not conducive to their consciousness, you know. It was very contrary to the state of their consciousness.
So when we're talking about religion, religion says, yes, somehow or other, you know, if you follow this by miracle you will go to heaven or to hell. Spiritual science says you work on your consciousness.
And if your consciousness becomes clean, your destination will also become the place which is very clean and beautiful. And this clean and beautiful place, eternal place is called Vaikuṇṭha.
If you go a little lower down, it may be called heaven or whatever it is. But you will only be you will only get where you deserve to go. And it doesn't matter how much donation you paid or whatever.
What matters is how clean is your consciousness. So there's only one way, you know. So that there's not even there's no point to ask this question.
Because uh uh if you want to go to higher place you have to have higher consciousness. As much as if you want to go to the moon or if you want to go to the sun, you know, can you go to the sun in this body?
You can go to the sun in this body, but it will not last long, right?
You know, you have to have a fiery body, you have to have the body which has the same constitution or the have can save ca s same condition as the sun. Only then you can be on the sun planet.
So if you want to go to heaven, you have to have heavenly mind, heavenly consciousness. There is no other way. If you want to go to lower place, you have to lower your consciousness. Very simple.
If you want to go to higher place, you just have to purify and elevate your consciousness. Simple.
Storage and cleansing of vasanas and samskaras
And very scientific. Yeah. Say it again, I don't say samskaras. Yeah. Yeah. Vasanas and saṁskāras reside in chitta. Uh chitta itself is very clear, but vasanas and saṁskāras, like you know, the hard drive in your computer.
It has capacity to keep all these files, little files in it. So vasanas and saṁskāras are these files in the in in your hard drive. But they're not manifested from the chitta. Chitta is just the adhikarana.
It's the holding place, it's the substratum for these vasanas and saṁskāras. Vasanas and saṁskāras are basically contamination on the chitta.
And when we say ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, we mean uh that the chitta will be uh cleaned, will be cleansed uh from all this vasanas and saṁskāras.
And therefore, you know, those people who have clean consciousness, clean chitta, they don't have karma because vasanas and saṁskāras is our karma. But when our chitta is clean, no karma anymore.
No dependence on all these vasanas and saṁskāras. Okay. I guess that's it. Thank you very much, Hare Krishna.