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The Advent of Lord Kṛṣṇa: Introduction
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body. For example, when one is awake one does business and talks with customers, and similarly in dreams one meets various customers, talks about business and gives quotations. Madhvācārya says, therefore, that dreams take place according to what one sees, hears and remembers. When one reawakens, of course, one forgets the body of the dream. This forgetfulness is called  apasmṛti . Thus we are changing bodies because we are sometimes dreaming, sometimes awake and sometimes forgetful. Forgetfulness of our previously created body is called death, and our work in the present body is called life. After death, one cannot remember the activities of one's previous body, whether imaginary or factual.
The agitated mind is compared to agitated water reflecting the sun and the moon. Actually the sun and moon reflected on the water do not exist there; nonetheless, they are reflected according to the movements of the water. Similarly, when our minds are agitated, we wander in different material atmospheres and receive different types of bodies. This is described in  Bhagavad-gītā  as  guṇa-saṅga .  Kāraṇam guṇa-saṅgo 'sya . Madhvācārya says,  guṇānubaddhaḥ san . And Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu says,  brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva  (Cc. Madhya 19.151). The living entity rotates up and down throughout the universe, sometimes in the upper planetary system, sometimes in the middle and lower planetary systems, sometimes as a man, sometimes a god, a dog, a tree and so on. This is all due to the agitation of the mind. The mind must therefore be steadily fixed. As it is said,  sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ . One should fix one's mind at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, and then one will become free from agitation. This is the instruction of the  Garuḍa Purāṇa , and in the  Nāradīya Purāṇa  the same process is described. As stated in  Bhagavad-gītā ,  yānti deva-vratā devān . The agitated mind goes to different planetary systems because it is attached to different kinds of demigods, but one does not go to the abode of the Supreme Personality of Godhead by worshiping the demigods, for this is not supported by any Vedic literature. Man is the architect of his own fortune. In this human life one has the facility with which to understand one's real situation, and one can decide whether to wander around the universe forever or return home, back to Godhead. This is also confirmed in  Bhagavad-gītā  ( aprāpya mām nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāravartmani ).