Eternal Relationship with God

The foundation of spiritual life is the understanding that every living being has an eternal relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches that this bond is indestructible. Just as a son may leave home and forget his father, the living entity may enter the material world and forget God, but the relationship itself remains intact. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is specifically designed to revive this dormant memory.

Indestructible Link

We are parts and parcels of the Absolute Whole, and as such, our connection to the Supreme is inherent and unbreakable. Śrīla Prabhupāda frequently uses the analogy of the sun and its rays to illustrate this point. Just as the sun rays cannot exist without the sun, the living entity cannot exist independently of God. Even in the conditioned state, where the soul wanders through various species of life, this relationship persists, though it may be temporarily forgotten. It is the very basis of our existence.

• We are all eternally related with Him (Lord Krsna) as the sun rays are eternally related with the sun disc.
• The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Absolute Whole, and the living entities are parts of the Absolute Whole. This relationship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entities is eternal.
• Actually, any person who can think, feel and will cannot be separated from Krsna. But the stage in which he can understand his eternal relationship with Krsna is called Krsna consciousness.

Cause of Suffering

The miseries of material life—birth, death, old age, and disease—are symptoms of a deeper disease: forgetfulness. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that when the soul forgets its eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa, it foolishly tries to become the master of the material world. This attempt is futile and inevitably leads to suffering. Therefore, real compassion and the highest benefit one can render to society involves reminding others of this lost connection, which is the root cause of their distress.

• A Krsna conscious person knows that if a man is suffering it is due to his forgetfulness of his eternal relationship with Krsna. Therefore, the highest benefit one can render to human society is relieving one's neighbor from all material problems.
• The living entities in the material world are forgetful of their eternal relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This forgetfulness is called avidya, or nescience.
• Unfortunately, when eternal relationship is disturbed, the living entity wants to become separately happy and thinks that the master is his order supplier. In this way there cannot be happiness.

Constitutional Position

To revive the relationship, one must understand its nature. Śrīla Prabhupāda clarifies that it is constitutionally one of service. Kṛṣṇa is the predominator (the Lord), and the living entity is the predominated (the servant). This is not an artificial imposition or a temporary arrangement but the eternal constitutional makeup of the soul. Doubts about this truth are merely the creations of mental speculators; the reality is that the soul finds its true happiness only in serving the Supreme.

• The eternal relation of an individual soul with the Supreme Soul Personality of Godhead is constitutionally one of being the eternal servitor of the eternal master.
• Doubts about the eternal relationship of the Lord and the living entity are created by mental speculators in different ways, but the conclusive fact is that the relationship of God and the living entity is one of the predominator and the predominated.

Reviving Connection

The process of reviving this relationship is technically called yoga. While many modern definitions limit yoga to physical gymnastics, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the real meaning of the word is to connect—specifically, to reconnect the soul with God. The scriptures, such as the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, are the guidebooks for this reconnection. By following their instructions and engaging in active service, the covering of ignorance is removed, and the eternal bond is revealed.

• Our real purpose of life is to become yogi. Yogi means to reestablish our connection, our lost connection, with God. At the present moment, in our material condition, we have forgotten our relationship, our eternal relationship with Krsna.
• Srimad-Bhagavatam teaches us how to reestablish our eternal relationship with the Supreme Lord, how to act in that relationship, and, lastly, how to achieve the highest benefit from it.
• Intelligent person should engage them (karmis) in doing what they are expert in and using the fruits in Lord Krsna's service. Such a course of action will automatically uncover the fruitive workers' eternal relationship with Lord Krsna.

Conclusion

There is no need to create a new relationship with God; it is already there, waiting to be uncovered. Śrīla Prabhupāda advises us not to be puffed up by temporary material achievements but to focus on the real success of life: reviving our eternal bond with Kṛṣṇa. When one attains the stage of samādhi or constant remembrance, they clearly understand their original constitutional position. This state is called sampatti-daśā, or the perfection of life, where the soul becomes free from the cycle of birth and death and enjoys its eternal relationship with the Lord.

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Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category Eternal Relationship with God. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.

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