The Most Wonderful Thing In This World

[suchandra 1]

Yudhisthira Maharaja was asked by Dharmaraja, “What is the most wonderful thing in this world?” He replied, “This is the most wonderful thing.” What is that? Now,

 

ahany ahani bhūtāni gacchantīha yamālayam śesah sthāvaram icchanti kim āścaryam atah param

 

“Every minute, every second, they are going to Yamaraja, means dying. But those who are living, they are thinking, ‘This death will not happen to me. He is simply dying. My friend is dying, my father is dying. That’s all right. But I am eternal. I will not die.’ ” He thinks like that. Otherwise you should have been prepared, “Oh, I will have to die. Then what is the after death?”

 

So the atheist class, they try to forget, that “After death, there is no life.” This is atheism. There is life, sir. Krishna says, tatha dehantara- praptih. How you can say there is no life? There is life, but you do not know. Krishna says that after this human life… He does not say that you get such and such life. He simply says, tatha dehantara-praptih: “You will get another body.” Now, He does not say what kind of body. The question should be, “All right, then what kind of body I am going to get?” That depends on your work. You can see in your front, there are so many dogs. They are barking day and night. They have no food. They have no shelter. And anyone sees, he beats him with a stick or some stone. There is no shelter, no food. You can get a life like that also. You can get a life like a tree, standing before you for five hundred years. Or you can get a life even like a demigod if you are pious.

 

So that will depend on your karma. Karmana daiva-netrena deho…jantur dehopapattaye. That will depend. Prakrteh kriyamanani gunaih karmāni sarvaśah [bg. 3.27]. Kāranam guna-sango ’sya sad- asad-yoni-janmasu. Everything is there in the sastra. You can get a nice body or you can get a very bad body, not comfortable, cats’ and dogs’ body. But in every body the living entity thinks that he is very happy. This is called illusion. In any body, any kind, either in cat’s body or dog’s body or tree’s body or ant’s body or Brahmā’s body or demigod’s body or human body, he thinks, “Oh, now I am very happy.” This is called praksepātmika-sakti. Sometimes Indra became a hog, being cursed by Brhaspati. So Brahma, after some time, came to receive him, that “Indra, now you have suffered very much. Now come with me to your heavenly kingdom.”

 

 

 

 

 

He said, “Where shall I go?” “Now, in the heaven.” “No, no, no. I have got my family. I have got my children. How can I go?” The hog is thinking that he has got family, he has got his children, so he cannot give up this responsibility and go to heaven. No. It is not possible. So this is called maya. Even in hog’s life, dog’s life, germ’s life, stool’s life, everyone is thinking, “I am very happy.” But he does not know that there is tīvram bhayam, very fierceful condition. But he forgets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.25.41

by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda

Bombay, December 9, 1974

[theist 1]

There is a saying. "hog's heaven." Some people see that picture of the hog lying peacefully and happily nursing her little piglets and they think the hog is in heaven.

 

Forgeting that half an hour ago the hog was eating someone's stool and in a little time from now the hog will be butchered by farmer John for sunday dinner.

 

Now the trick is not to focus on Indra or people who think as I described but on how this story relates to my own life.

 

Prabhupada has invited the world back to Godhead just as Brahma invited Indra back to heaven but yet we linger here. We need to seriously examine our own little 'hog heaven's' and make some serious choices.

[Redsox 0]

Heaven is what appeals to the senses?

[Vigraha 0]

 

.

 

Prabhupada has invited the world back to Godhead just as Brahma invited Indra back to heaven but yet we linger here. We need to seriously examine our own little 'hog heaven's' and make some serious choices.

 

We can choose to reestablish our original Krishna Consciousness, or dream on within the material world for an almost eternity. Srila Prabhupada's teachings can free us from this 'hogs heaven' of the three material worlds

[Ashvatama 0]

 

We can choose to reestablish our original Krishna Consciousness, or dream on within the material world for an almost eternity. Srila Prabhupada's teachings can free us from this 'hogs heaven' of the three material worlds

 

Yeah man, as the song goes. 'we've got to get out of this place (thinking I'm this material body), even if it's the last thing we've got to do'

[tensriram 0]

What does the hog think of you!

[suchandra 1]

 

What does the hog think of you!

The hog can only think of eating, sleeping, mating and defense. But for us human beings there's a chance that in this age of Kali Yuga (present age of quarrel and hypocrisy), the best way to purify our consciousness and come to the realisation of our real spiritual and blissful identity is by chanting the Holy names of God. Thus Mohammed counseled, "Glorify the name of your Lord, the most high"[Koran: 87.2]. Saint Paul said, "Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved" [Romans: 10.13]. Lord Buddha declared,"All who sincerely call upon My name will come to me after death, and I will take them to Paradise"[Vows of Amida Buddha]. King David preached, "From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised" [Psalms:113.3]. And the world's oldest scriptures, the Vedas of India, emphatically state,"Chant the holy name, chant the holy name of the Lord. In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy there is no other way, there is no other way, no other way to attain spiritual enlightenement." [brhadnaradiya Purana]. The Kali Santarana Upanishad specifically enjoins us to chant the Maha Mantra:

 

 

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

[Redsox 0]

 

What does the hog think of you!

 

The hog thinks we are thieves for stealing the lord's food from other creatures for our own bellies and leaving it nothing but stool to eat. The hog thinks we are slavers for enslaving its kind. The hog thinks we are murderers for killing it, the hog thinks we are kidnappers because all those piglets above are either going to the slaughterhouse or are going to be dissected in biology labs.