Introduction
9
say I have lost all my money in business; then I am a sufferer. Similarly, in every field of life we enjoy the results of our work, or we suffer the results. This is called  karma .
Īśvara  (the Supreme Lord),  jīva  (the living entity),  prakṛti  (nature), eternal time and  karma  (activity) are all explained in the  Bhagavad-gītā . Out of these five, the Lord, the living entities, material nature and time are eternal. The manifestation of  prakṛti  may be temporary, but it is not false. Some philosophers say that the manifestation of material nature is false, but according to the philosophy of  Bhagavad-gītā  or according to the philosophy of the Vaiṣṇavas, this is not so. The manifestation of the world is not accepted as false; it is accepted as real, but temporary. It is likened unto a cloud which moves across the sky, or the coming of the rainy season which nourishes grains. As soon as the rainy season is over and as soon as the cloud goes away, all the crops which were nourished by the rain dry up. Similarly, this material manifestation takes place at a certain interval, stays for a while and then disappears. Such are the workings of  prakṛti . But this cycle is working eternally. Therefore  prakṛti  is eternal; it is not false. The Lord refers to this as “My  prakṛti .” This material nature is the separated energy of the Supreme Lord, and similarly the living entities are also the energy of the Supreme Lord, but they are not separated. They are eternally related. So the Lord, the living entity, material nature and time are all interrelated and are all eternal. However, the other item,  karma , is not eternal. The effects of  karma  may be very old indeed. We are suffering or enjoying the results of our activities from time immemorial, but we can change the results of our  karma , or our activity, and this change depends on the perfection of our knowledge. We are engaged in various activities. Undoubtedly we do not know what sort of activities we should adopt to gain relief from the actions and reactions of all these activities, but this is also explained in the  Bhagavad-gītā .
The position of  īšvara  is that of supreme consciousness. The  jīvas , or the living entities, being parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord, are also conscious. Both the living entity and material nature are explained as  prakṛti , the energy of the Supreme Lord, but one of the two, the  jīva , is conscious. The other  prakṛti  is not conscious. That is the difference. Therefore the  jīva-prakṛti  is called superior because the  jīva  has consciousness which is similar to the Lord's. The Lord's is supreme consciousness, however, and one should not claim that the  jīva , the living entity, is also supremely conscious. The living being cannot be supremely conscious at any stage of his perfection, and the theory that he can be so is a misleading theory. Conscious he may be, but he is not perfectly or supremely conscious.