Ādi-līlā, Chapter 5
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in the higher planets. Throughout his life, the gross materialist who is constantly after sense gratification spends all day earning his livelihood to maintain his family, and at night he wastes his energy in sex enjoyment or else goes to sleep thinking about all he has done in the daytime. That is the monotonous life of the materialist. Although differently graded as businessmen, lawyers, politicians, professors, judges, coolies, pickpockets, laborers and so on, materialists all simply engage in eating, sleeping, fearing and sense gratification and thus spoil their valuable lives pursuing luxury and neglecting to perfect their lives through spiritual realization.
Yogīs , however, try to perfect their lives, and therefore  Bhagavad-gītā  enjoins that everyone should become a  yogī .  Yoga  is the system for linking the soul in the service of the Lord. Only under superior guidance can one practice such  yoga  in his life without changing his social position. As already described, a  yogī  can go anywhere he desires without mechanical help, for a  yogī  can place his mind and intelligence within the air circulating inside his body, and by practicing the art of breath control he can mix that air with the air that blows all over the universe outside his body. With the help of this universal air, a  yogī  can travel to any planet and get a body suitable for its atmosphere. We can understand this process by comparing it to the electronic transmission of radio messages. With radio transmitters, sound waves produced at a certain station can travel all over the earth in seconds. But sound is produced from the ethereal sky, and as already explained, subtler than the ethereal sky is the mind, and finer than the mind is the intelligence. Spirit is still finer than the intelligence, and by nature it is completely different from matter. Thus we can just imagine how quickly the spirit soul can travel through the universal atmosphere.
To come to the stage of manipulating finer elements like mind, intelligence and spirit, one needs appropriate training, an appropriate mode of life and appropriate association. Such training depends upon sincere prayers, devotional service, achievement of success in mystic perfection, and the successful merging of oneself in the activities of the soul and Supersoul. A gross materialist, whether he be an empiric philosopher, a scientist, a psychologist or whatever, cannot attain such success through blunt efforts and word jugglery.
Materialists who perform  yajñas , or great sacrifices, are comparatively better than grosser materialists who do not know anything beyond laboratories and test tubes. The advanced materialists who perform such sacrifices can reach the planet called  Vaiśvānara , a fiery planet similar to the sun. On this planet, which is situated on the way to Brahmaloka, the topmost planet in the universe, such an advanced materialist can free himself from all traces of vice and its effects. When such a materialist is purified, he can rise to the orbit of the pole star ( Dhruvaloka ). Within this orbit, which is called the  Śiśumāra cakra , are situated the  Āditya-lokas  and the  Vaikuṇṭha  planet within this universe.
A purified materialist who has performed many sacrifices, undergone severe penances and given the major portion of his wealth in charity can reach such planets as  Dhruvaloka , and if he becomes still more qualified there, he can penetrate still higher orbits and pass through the navel of the universe to reach the planet  Maharloka , where sages like  Bhṛgu Muni  live. In  Maharloka  one can live even to the time of the partial annihilation of the universe. This annihilation begins when