Physical Beauty

One’s bodily luster and beauty, one’s constitution, one’s activities and one’s qualities all depend on the law of cause and effect.

The material beauty of a person is an illusion because actually the body is made of earth, water, fire, air, etc. But because there is the association of the living spark with matter, it appears to be beautiful. No one is attracted by an earthen doll, even if it is most perfectly prepared to attract the attention of others. The dead body has no beauty because no one will accept the dead body of a so-called beautiful woman. Therefore, the conclusion is that the spirit spark is beautiful, and because of the soul’s beauty one is attracted by the beauty of the outward body. The Vedic wisdom, therefore, forbids us to be attracted by false beauty.

Fatness, thinness, bodily and mental distress, thirst, hunger, fear, disagreement, desires for material happiness, old age, sleep, attachment for material possessions, anger, lamentation, illusion and identification of the body with the self are all transformations of the material covering of the spirit soul. A person absorbed in the material bodily conception is affected by these things.
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Material Body

This body is given according to one’s past desires. To fulfill desires, one is given the body, with which he acts accordingly. Practically speaking, the body is a machine, designed by the Supreme Lord, to fulfill desires. Because of desires, one is put into difficult circumstances to suffer or to enjoy. This transcendental vision of the living entity, when developed, makes one separate from bodily activities. One who has such a vision is an actual seer.

Therefore the living entity must accept a particular type of body awarded to him by maya, the material energy, according to his karma. One cannot independently say, “Give me a body like this” or “Give me a body like that.” One must accept whatever body is offered by the material energy. This is the position of the ordinary living being.

Yet the body is temporary, and only foolish, materialistic persons, who do not have full knowledge of the soul, regard the temporary body as reality and engage in decorating this body. Both of these pitfalls—rejection of the body as false and acceptance of the body as all in all—can be avoided when one is fully situated in Krishna consciousness.

As one changes an old garment, so the individual living being also changes his body, and this change of body is called death. Death is therefore a process of changing the body at the end of the duration of the present life. An intelligent person must be prepared for this and must try to have the best type of body in the next life. The best type of body is a spiritual body

Absolute Power, Absolute Corruption

A serpent with a jewel on its hood is as dangerous as a serpent without such a jewel. Durvasa Muni was a very learned brahmana equipped with mystic power, but because he was not a gentleman, he did not know how to use his power. He was therefore extremely dangerous. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is never inclined toward a dangerous person who uses his mystic power for some personal design. By the laws of nature, therefore, such misuse of power is ultimately dangerous not for society but for the person who misuses it.

Srimad Bhagavatam 9.4.70

Heaven Vs Original Spiritual World?

Usually the concept in religious books of different religions is that heaven is a place where there is a lot of enjoyment. Quran talks about the various types of sense gratification you can enjoy. The Mormons consider heaven to be a place to get back together with your family and then live there forever after. Family members are happy and there is no suffering and everyone is basically God conscious.

But this concept of heaven fits in with the upper planetary systems in the (material) universe, where people are pious entities who follow the laws of God, and they have good material sense gratification.

But according to the Vedas, one doesn't stay there eternally. One comes down from there, from those planets and is forced to maybe take birth in the human form of life or as an animal, according to their Karmas. One can be on the heavenly planets for thousands or millions of years of our calculation, so one thinks one is there for a very long time but in terms of eternal time it's a drop in the bucket, so to speak. It's just a small period of time, which quickly passes by.

So, the real goal of life is to go back to Godhead, back to the original Spiritual Kingdom of God. But in the Spiritual Kingdom of God, there is no material sense gratification. Everything is in relationship to the service of the Lord.

That means, as long as one is thinking about their personal sense gratification, as long as that is their goal of life, namely how to make their own bodies happy, they are forced to come again in the material world.

Taking Shelter of Krishna

Posted by:
Gandharvika dd. ISV
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