My Supreme Abode🔗

Kṛṣṇa explains how transient this material world is. In our concept of time, we see things as permanent, but when we operate in a different zone of space and time, all this becomes temporary.

Our ignorance makes us think that all that we see is real and permanent. Once we understand that this entire life and the world around us is impermanent, we see everything from a completely different angle.

In our concept of time and space, we see material things as permanent. We want to have ownership over everything that is available. And the problem is everyone wants the same thing! We are like cats fighting over a piece of bread. One more thing you should know: We want to hold onto this body for as long as we can. Even at sixty or seventy, many people go in for plastic surgery to look young. Why? They do not want to accept the truth that the body is impermanent.

When you look around, you see that the earth is stationary. When you look from the moon, you see the earth moving. When you go beyond the moon, you see that the moon also moves. Once we raise ourselves to higher dimensions, we see the actual truth. As long as we limit ourselves to this space, we think the earth is stationary. When we change our reference point in space and time, we realize that all we think of as permanent, ours, is not permanent.

This is what Kṛṣṇa says. We believe in a concept of finite time and limited space and we cling to that without realizing what is beyond this dimension.

We are greedy to accumulate more and more material pleasures because we see them as real and permanent. That is one side. On the other side we fear that they will be taken away from us. Both greed and fear are the main sources of our misery. We run, not for the joy of running, but because greed makes us run towards something that we want to possess, and fear makes us run away from something that seems to take away our possessions.

When we live in bondage of fear and greed, we continuously build saṁskāras. First of all, we are not trying to fulfill our true desires or prārabdha karma. Then on top of that, we build a whole new set of desires. In our concept of time and space, we think things are permanent. We think we own them and should take care of them and control them.

When we understand that at higher dimensions, all that we see is destroyed and created continuously, we realize the futility of holding onto even our own body.

Kṛṣṇa says that in all this creation and destruction, only one thing is neither created nor destroyed, and that is the ‘ultimate consciousness’! What we think of as an age is a fraction of a second to Brahma and everything we see as permanent is being made and destroyed every time Brahma blinks. Do not analyze the literal meaning of this. Do not analyze how it is possible. Do not worry about how many hours, how many seconds make one day of Brahma? Do not worry about what is Brahma’s time or what is Viṣṇu’s time or what is Śiva’s time or Kṛṣṇa’s time. Kṛṣṇa refers to the concept of time and space as it exists in the ultimate consciousness, and as an enlightened master experiences it.

Appreciate the deeper meaning. Understand that whatever we see is transient. It is like putting our hand in a river and trying to hold the water in our hand. What happens? The river flows past, and our hand is empty. Once we realize this truth, our whole idea about time and space will change. We will see everything around us in a different light and understand the futility of the rat race.

The secret to liberation is what Kṛṣṇa gives here – ‘One who attains My abode will never return.’ The abode where one will not return to refers to the state of the being when it transcends joys and sorrow. Kṛṣṇa repeatedly talks about focusing one’s thoughts on the Divine. The only way to think of the Divine at the time of our death is by thinking about Him all the time. At that time, suddenly we cannot think of God in the midst of such pain and suffering. It is impossible.

That is why Kṛṣṇa insists upon continuous devotion to the Supreme. When we live in a state of continuous devotion, our last thought will be of the Divine. Our last thought determines our next birth. There is no doubt about it.

You see, thousands of thoughts come to us every minute. Let as many thoughts as possible be of God. Let us immerse ourselves in thinking about the supreme soul. This purifies our inner space. Throughout the day, how many times do we think of God? Maybe before a meal, or before going to bed. Otherwise, it’s only when we face some problem, that we think of God! But how many times do we think of some film actress or actor? Everything in the newspapers, on television or on the internet is about something with which we are not really connected. We take many such things into our system, and all our thoughts revolve around them.

Out of thousands of thoughts, less than one percent is probably related to God. Everything else is related to something external. Every thought is energy and we waste more than ninety nine percent of our energy on something that is not really needed for us. If we can channel this energy to look inward, we explore a new dimension of our Self.

We are ready to do anything other than think about God or our Self. We think it is a waste of time. We do something only if we feel we will get something from it. But if we analyze our thoughts carefully, we are not thinking of anything productive.

Most of the time, we justify ourselves saying, ‘Why think of God? What will we get? I have better things to think about like work and my studies.’ These are mere justifications. If we sit and write down our thoughts, we will see that we are not thinking about anything productive. Our thoughts are completely illogical and random.

So why not think about God? When we are completely immersed in thoughts of God, our inner space is cleared. We are preparing our Self. At the time of death, these thoughts will liberate us. Constantly thinking about God helps when our soul passes through the energy layers at the time of death.