Elevation at Death 25

years. Yet despite such a long life span, death awaits
everyone. Even if one lives twenty thousand or fifty
thousand or even millions of years, in the material
world the years are all counted, and death is there.
How can we escape this subjugation to death? That
is the lesson of Bhagavad-gita. (Bg. 2.20)

na jayate mriyate va kadacin

nayam bhutva bhavita va na bhuyah
ajo nityah sa$vato’yam purano

na hanyate hanyamane Sarire

“For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor,
once having been, does he ever cease to be.
He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and
primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.”

We are spirit soul, and as such we are eternal. Why
then should we subject ourselves to birth and death?
One who asks this question is to be considered
intelligent. Those who are Krsna conscious are very
intelligent because they are not interested in gaining
entrance to any planet where there is death. They will
reject a long duration of life in order to attain a body
like unto God’s. Jsvarah paramah krsnah sac-cid-
ananda-vigrahah. Sat means eternal, cit means full of
knowledge, and ananda means full of pleasure. Krsna
is the reservoir of all pleasure. If we transfer our-
selves from this body into the spiritual world—either
to Krsnaloka, Krsna’s planet, or any other spiritual
planet—we will receive a similar sac-cid-ananda body.
Thus the aim of those who are in Krsna consciousness
is different from those who are trying to promote
