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. Śrīla Prabhupāda 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, this relationship persists, though it may be forgotten.
- 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 are symptoms of a deeper disease: forgetfulness. When the soul forgets its eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa, it tries to become the master of the material world. This attempt is futile and leads to suffering. Real compassion, therefore, involves reminding others of this lost connection.
- 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
What is the nature of this relationship? Śrīla Prabhupāda clarifies that it is one of service. Kṛṣṇa is the predominator, and the living entity is the predominated. This is not a temporary arrangement but the constitutional makeup of the soul.
- 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 called yoga. While many define yoga as gymnastics, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the real meaning is to connect. The scriptures, such as the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, are the guidebooks for this reconnection. By following their instructions and engaging in devotional service, the covering of ignorance is removed.
- 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. The task is simply to uncover it. Once this relationship is revived, the living entity attains the perfection of life, known as sampatti-daśā, and becomes free from the cycle of birth and death.
- We should not be puffed up. If we want to make success of our life, then we must revive our eternal relationship with Krsna. That is the movement of Krsna consciousness.
- After smarana-dasa or samadhi has fully developed, the soul comes to understand his original constitutional position. At that time he can perfectly and clearly understand his eternal relationship with Krsna. That is called sampatti-dasa, perfection of life.
Dive Deeper into Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vani
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.