minus64 ping's Key Ideas from Bhagavad-Gita As It Is
by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Constitutional position of the living being is the rendering of service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If we analyze this statement, we can easily see that every living being is constantly engaged in rendering service to another living being. A living being serves other living beings in various capacities. By doing so, the living entity enjoys life. The lower animals serve human beings as servants serve their master. A serves B master, B serves C master, and C serves D master and so on.

Under these circumstances,we can see that one friend serves another friend, the mother serves the son,the wife serves the husband, the husband serves the wife and so on.If we go on searching in this spirit,it will be seen that there is no exception in the society of living beings to the activity of service. The politician presents his manifesto for the public to convince them of his capacity for service.The voters therefore give the politician their valuable votes,thinking that he will render valuable service to society. The shopkeeper serves the customer,and the artisan serves the capitalist.

The capitalist serves the family,and the family serves the state in the terms of the eternal capacity of the eternal living being. In this way we can see that no living being is exempt from rendering service to other living beings,and therefore we can safely conclude that service is the constant companion of the living being and that the rendering of service is the eternal religion of the living being.Yet man professes to belong to a particular type of faith with reference to a particular time and circumstance and thus claims to be a Hindu,Muslim,Christian, Buddhist or an adherent of any sect.

Such designations are non–sanātana-dharma. A Hindu may change his faith to become a Muslim, or a Muslim may change his faith to become a Hindu, or a Christian may change his faith and so on. But in all circumstances the change of religious faith does not affect the eternal occupation of rendering service to others. The Hindu, Muslim or Christian in all circumstances is a servant of someone. Thus, to profess a particular type of faith is not to profess one’s sanātana-dharma. The rendering of service is sanātana-dharma. Factually we are related to the Supreme Lord in service.

The Supreme Lord is the supreme enjoyer, and we living entities are His servitors. We are created for His enjoyment, and if we participate in that eternal enjoyment with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, we become happy. We cannot become happy otherwise. It is not possible to be happy independently, just as no one part of the body can be happy without cooperating with the stomach. It is not possible for the living entity to be happy without rendering transcendental loving service unto the Supreme Lord.

Bhagavad Gita 8.20–21 

Supreme Lord Krishna said

“There is another nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is. That supreme abode is called unmanifested and infallible, and it is the supreme destination. When one goes there, he never comes back. That is My supreme abode.”

Everything is present in Vaikuṇṭha loka. There we can have an eternal,blissful life full of knowledge(sac-cid-ānanda).It is not compulsory for us to rot in this material world.

The easiest way to go to the Vaikuṇṭha lokas is: Simply try to understand Kṛṣṇa. Why does He come? What are His activities? Where does He come from? Why does He come in the form of a human being? We only have to try to understand this and study Kṛṣṇa as He explains Himself in Bhagavad-gītā. What is the difficulty? God personally explains Himself as He is,and if we accept Bhagavad-gītā as it is, we shall no longer have to transmigrate.We shall no longer have to endure birth and death,for we can attain our spiritual bodies made of eternity-knowledge-bliss, and live happily in Kṛṣṇa’s family.

Kṛṣṇa is providing for us here, and He will also provide for us there. So we should know that our happiness is in returning home, back to Godhead, where we can eat, drink and be merry in Kṛṣṇa’s company.

Chapter 7 : Knowledge of the Absolute Text 15

Lord Krishna said : Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons, do not surrender unto Me.

Out of the 8,400,000 different species of living beings, there are 400,000 human forms. 900,000 varieties of material bodies in the water, 2,000,000 vegetable bodies, 1,100,000 worms and reptiles, 1,000,000 forms of birds, 3,000,000 different bodies of beasts forms. Altogether there are 8,400,000 varieties of bodies in different planets of the universe, and the living entity is traveling by so many transmigrations according to different modes of enjoying spirit within himself.

Chapter 7: Knowledge of the Absolute

TEXT 19

Lord Krishna said : After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.

Although krishna has unlimited opulences, 6 of them are primary which are strength,fame,wealth,knowledge,beauty and renunciation.

Krishna has all these opulences in fullness. Even a common man has some of these opulences in minute quantity but no man has any of opulence in fullness.

Chapter 5 :Karma-yoga- Action in Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Text 29

Lord Krishna said : I am the ultimate purpose of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, one who knows me attains peace from the pangs of material miseries.

Chapter 9 : The Most Confidential Knowledge Text 10

Lord Krishna Said : This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.

Chapter 13 Nature,the enjoyer and consciousness.

Lord Krishna said : Renunciation of the objects of sense gratification,absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest,and evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events;constant and unalloyed devotion to Me,resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people;accepting the importance of self-realization,and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth-all these I thus declare to be knowledge,and what is contrary to these is ignorance.

Chapter 2 Text 13

Lord Krishna said : As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.

Chapter 2 Text 14

Lord Krishna said : The nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.

Chapter 8 Verse 6

Lord Krishna said

Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.

The cumulative effect of the thoughts and actions of one's life influences one's thoughts at the moment of death; therefore the actions of this life determine one's future state of being.

If one is transcendentally absorbed in Krsna's service,then his next body will be transcendental (spiritual), not physical.

Therefore the chanting of Hare Krsna is the best process for successfully changing one's state of being to transcendental life.