View source for Either I become president or minister or head of the family, head of the community, society - whatever I may be, my position is servant, but I'm thinking that I have become master. This is called illusion

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{{terms|"Either I become president or minister or head of the family, head of the community, society"|"whatever I may be, my position is servant, but I'm thinking that I have become master. This is called illusion"}}
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{{compiler|SharmisthaK}}
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[[Category:Either]]
[[Category:Become]]
[[Category:President]]
[[Category:Minister]]
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[[Category:Family]]
[[Category:Community or Society]]
[[Category:Whatever]]
[[Category:May Be]]
[[Category:Position]]
[[Category:Servant]]
[[Category:I Am]]
[[Category:Thinking]]
[[Category:I Have]]
[[Category:Have Become]]
[[Category:Master]]
[[Category:This is Called Illusion]]
[[Category:Pages Needing Audio - SHARMISTHA]]
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<h2>Lectures</h2>
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<h3>General Lectures</h3>
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Our actual position is servitude. We serve. Either I become president or minister or head of the family, head of the community, society—whatever I may be, my position is servant, but I'm thinking that I have become master. This is called illusion.
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[[Vanisource:730228 - Lecture - Jakarta|730228 - Lecture - Jakarta]]
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Dehinām. Dehinām means one who has accepted this material body. He's called dehī. Practically we do not require this material body, but we have accepted this material body for enjoying in this material world. In the spiritual world we can simply remain as servant. We cannot become master. Because in the spiritual world the master is one—Kṛṣṇa, or God—and everyone is servant. Jīvera svarūpa haya nitya kṛṣṇa dāsa ([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 20.108-109|CC Madhya 20.108-109]]).

That is, that is our real position. Our real position is to serve. Now in the material world we have come here to enjoy, but we are serving. This is called māyā. Actually we are not enjoying; we are serving. Suppose I become president of a certain state. What is my position? My position is to serve the country well. But I am thinking, "Now I am president." Similarly, in family life, the head of the family, he's thinking that he's master, but actually he's serving his wife, his children, his servant.

So our actual position is servitude. We serve. Either I become president or minister or head of the family, head of the community, society—whatever I may be, my position is servant, but I'm thinking that I have become master. This is called illusion. And sometimes, when I become exasperated by becoming such master, false master, I give up this world. I say brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā: "This world is false. Now I shall become Brahman, the Supreme Brahman. I shall merge into Brahman."

This is . . . just like the grapes are sour. The jackal and the orchard . . . you have no . . . you have knowledge of this story. This jackal wanted to catch up the grapes, and when he could not catch up, he gives it up: "Oh, the grapes are sour. It has no use." Similarly, first of all we try to become master—master of family, master of society, master of community, master of nation, master of international figure—and when you're baffled, then we give up this world. So-called give up. We cannot give up. But we say, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā, "This world is false, and now brahma is satya; therefore I shall become Brahman."

You are already Brahman. Why you shall become? You're already Brahman, because you are part and parcel of God. God is Brahman, Para-brahman, and you are Brahman also. Just like your part and parcel of the body, finger, that is of the same material as your whole body—the same blood, same skin, same bone. Similarly, we are already all Brahman. There is no mistake. Actually you want to be situated in His position. He knows that "I'm Brahman," ahaṁ brahmāsmi, so ham. So ham means "I'm as good as Kṛṣṇa and God." That we know. Simply by our material understanding we cannot realize it. Actually we are Brahman.

Therefore this Brahman realization is being explained by Kṛṣṇa. This is Brahman. Brahman means sanātana, eternal. "My dear Arjuna, you also existed, I also existed in the past, because we are Brahman." Otherwise, matter does not exist eternally. Any matter, any material thing you take, it does not exist. It has got a beginning and it has got an end, and in the middle there are so many disturbances—six kinds of changes in the matter, ṣaḍ-vikāra. But spirit, soul, Brahman, it has no change. Avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idaṁ tatam. This is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā. Avināśi . . . na hanyate, na jāyate na mriyate vā kadācit na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre ([[Vanisource:BG 2.20 (1972)|BG 2.20]]). These statements are there.

So this is Brahman realization that, "I have no death. I have no birth." This is Brahman realization. The birth and death is concerned with this body, and I am not this body.

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:dehino 'smin yathā dehe
:kaumāraṁ jauvanaṁ jarā
:tathā dehāntaraṁ prāptir 
:([[Vanisource:BG 2.13 (1972)|BG 2.13]])
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Just like I, living entity, I am although existing in this body. I'm changing bodies so many times. I was a baby; I changed that body. I became a boy or a child. Then I became a boy; I changed my body. Then I became a young man; I changed my body. Then I became an old man; I changed my body. All those bodies, different types of body—babyhood, childhood, boyhood, youthhood—they are now gone, and now I'm existing in this old body. So it will also go.

But that does not mean that I'll be finished. No. I'll accept another body. As I am changing different types of bodies, I am existing. Similarly, when I shall change this body, I shall exist in another body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati ([[Vanisource:BG 2.13 (1972)|BG 2.13]]). Dhīra means those who are sober. He's not bewildered. Adhīra.

There are two kinds of men—dhīra and adhīra. Adhīra means senseless, crazy, and dhīra means with sense. He's not bewildered. He's called dhīra. So when somebody dies, one who is dhīra, he understands, "My father, my brother, or my relative, or somebody else, he has simply changed this body." Tathā dehāntaraṁ prāptir. "So what is the cause of lamenting?" These things are discussed in the Bhagavad-gītā. But even if you have got affection for that body, still Kṛṣṇa says:

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:mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya
:śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ
:āgamāpāyino anitya
:tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata 
:([[Vanisource:BG 2.14 (1972)|BG 2.14]])
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"My dear Arjuna, even if you are very much affected when the body of your son or your relative is finished, these things are temporary," āgamāpāyina anitya. This death is also temporary, because he will accept immediately another body. So because we are accustomed to think that "This body is my son," or "my father," "my this," that, there is some pain, causes of pain. But Kṛṣṇa says, "These are temporary." You'll not forever cry for your father, for son. Say one day, two days, three days, that's all.
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