Mantra Fourteen
73
PURPORT
Human civilization, by its so-called advancement of knowledge, has created many material things, including space capsules and atomic energy. But it has failed to create a situation in which man need not die, take his birth again, become old, or suffer from diseases. Whenever these questions are raised by an intelligent man before a so-called scientist, the scientist very cleverly replies that material science is progressing, and that it will ultimately be possible to render man deathless and ageless. Such answers by material scientists prove their gross ignorance of material Nature. In material Nature everything is under the stringent laws of matter, and must pass through six stages of existence: birth, growth, duration of life, transformation, deterioration, and death at last. Nothing that is in contact with material Nature can be beyond the above-mentioned six laws of existence, and therefore no one, whether demigod, man, animal, or tree, can survive forever here in the material world.
The duration of life may vary in different species. Lord Brahmā, the chief living being within this material world, may continue his life for millions and millions of years, while the minute germs may live just for some hours; that does not matter. No one in this material world can survive eternally. Things here are born or created under certain conditions, they stay for some time, and, if they have life then they grow, create generations, then dwindle gradually, and at last are annihilated. By that law even the Brahmās (there are millions of Brahmās in different universes—each one bigger than the last) are all liable to death, either today or tomorrow. Therefore, the whole material world is called  Martya-loka , the place of death.
The material scientists and politicians are trying to make this place deathless because they have no information of the deathless spiritual nature, due to their ignorance of the Vedic