Page 13 - Metaphysical questions of life

Once a person choses to separate from Lord Krishna and the company

of liberated souls in the spiritual world, he is placed in the material
world with a material body covering his soul. The covering of the mate-
rial body is like a shroud that obstructs the vison and ability to correct-
ly see oneself and one’s situa on.

The material world is a perverted reflec on of the spiritual world. It is a
shadow of reality. In the darkness of the shadow there is no reality and
no durable existence of the material bodies or objects. Every living en-

ty goes through six stages: birth, growth, maintenance, producing by-
products (children), dwindling and death. There is no con nual exist-
ence of the material bodies. All material objects appear by a combina-
on of material elements and they disappear. The ephemeral nature of
all persons and objects in the material world causes bewilderment.
However, the shadow of reality indicates that there is substance and
reality somewhere else. Just like the shadow of my hand indicates that

there is a real hand.

The cycle of suffering begins when we become a racted to the shadow
of reality. We develop the hope and belief that we can dominate and
control material nature independent of God and find happiness. In
effect, we a empt to become a li le god by exploi ng the resources of
nature for the gra fica on of our selfish desires to please our senses.

The senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin and the mind) are given to us

by Lord Krishna for acquiring knowledge for self-realiza on. If one be-
comes bewildered by material nature and the false ego evolved from
iden fica on with the temporary body, he desires to use the senses
for sense gra fica on rather than self-realiza on. Advancing on the
path of sense gra fica on, one invariably seeks and exploits vic ms for
personal pleasure. The end result is misery. Bhak vedanta Swami Prab-
hupada reiterates the law of nature that is not understood by the vast

majority of humanity: “just a er one enjoys so-called material happi-
ness (sukha), material distress (dukha) will follow.”(SB3.25.13 purport).

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