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Easy Journey to Other Planets
fixed. It is inexplicable, because it is contrary to all material qualities. It is unthinkable by the ordinary brain. It is unchangeable. No one, therefore, should ever lament for what is an eternal anti-material principle.
(Bg. 2.23-25)
Thus, in the  Bhagavad-gītā  and in all other Vedic literatures the superior energy (anti-material principle) is accepted as the vital force or the living spirit. This is also called the  jīva . This living principle cannot be generated by any combination of material elements. There are eight material principles which are described as inferior energies, and they are: 1) earth, 2) water, 3) fire, 4) air, 5) ether, 6) mind, 7) intelligence, and 8) ego. Apart from these is the living force, or the anti-material principle, which is described as the superior energy. These are called energies because they are wielded and controlled by the supreme living being, the Personality of Godhead (Kṛṣṇa).
For a long time the materialist was limited within the boundary of the eight material principles mentioned above. Now it is encouraging to see that he has a little preliminary information of the anti-material principle and the anti-material universe. We hope that with the progress of time the materialist will be able to estimate the value of the anti-material world in which there is no trace of material principles. Of course the very word "anti-material" indicates that the principle is in opposition to all material qualities.
Anti-material Worlds
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There are, of course, the mental speculators who comment upon the anti-material principle. These fall into two main groups, and they arrive at two different erroneous conclusions. One group (the gross materialists) either denies the anti-material principle or admits only the disintegration of material combination at a certain stage (death). The other group accepts the anti-material principle as being in direct opposition to the material principle with its twenty-four categories. This group is known as the  sāṅkhyas , and they investigate the material principles and analyze them minutely. At the end of their investigation, the  sāṅkhyaites  finally accept a transcendental (anti-material) nonactive principle. However, difficulties arise for all these mental speculators because they speculate with the help of inferior energy. They do not accept information from the superior. In order to realize the real position of the anti-material principle, one must rise to the transcendental plane of superior energy.  Bhakti-yoga  is the very activity of superior energy.
From the platform of the material world, one cannot estimate the real position of the anti-material world. To try to do so is like the attempt of a frog in a well to approximate the breadth and depth of the Pacific Ocean. "Is it twice as big as this well?" he asks. "Three times as big? Four times as big?" Obviously it is impossible to calculate in this way. But the Supreme Lord, who is the controller of both material and anti-material energies, descends out of His causeless mercy and gives us complete information of the anti-material world. In this way we can