2 Elevation to Krsna Consciousness

minutes before he came to the meeting at which he
was killed, he was warned by confidential associates
not to go, but he persisted. To commit mistakes is
very natural in the conditioned state of life. Indeed,
the popular saying has arisen: “To err is human.”
Another imperfection of the conditioned soul is
that he is sure to be illusioned. Being illusioned
means accepting something which is not, taking some
phantasmagoria to be factual. Every one of us is
under the impression that we are these bodies, but
actually we are not. Accepting the body to be the
self is called illusion, or maya. The third imperfec-
tion is that conditioned souls have a tendency to
cheat. We have often heard a storekeeper say,
“Because you are my friend, I won’t make any
profit off you.” But in actuality we know that he is
making at least 50% profit. There are so many in-
stances of this cheating propensity. There are also
many examples of teachers who actually know
nothing but put forth theories in words like “‘per-
haps” or “it may be,” while in actuality they are
simply cheating their students. The fourth imperfec-
tion is that the senses of the living entity are not
perfect. Our vision is so limited that we cannot see
very far away nor very near. The eye can see only
under certain conditions, and therefore it is under-
stood that our vision is limited. Similarly, all our
other senses are also limited. It is not possible to
understand the unlimited by these imperfect, limited
senses. The conclusion is that the Vedic process
does not encourage us to endeavor to learn the
Absolute Truth by employing our present senses,
