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Choosing Human and Animal Lives 7

fallible, and is the highest destination. Going there,
one never returns from that, My supreme abode.”
(Bg. 8.20,21)

The Vedic religion, or varnasrama-dharma, is also
called eternal because no one can trace out its be-
ginning. The Christian religion has a history of 2,000
years, and the Mohammedan religion has a history
of 1,300 years, but if we try to trace out the origins
of Vedic religion, we will not be able to find a be-
ginning. Varnasrama-dharma is accepted as the eternal
religion of the living entity.

We often say that God created this material world,
and this means that God existed before the world.
Since the Lord was existing before this material
manifestation, He is not subject to this creation. If
He were subject to the laws of the material world,
how could He have created it? That the Lord is
simultaneously identical with His creation and yet
exists in His completeness apart from it is stated in
Bhagavad-gita.

maya tatam idam sarvam
jJagad avyakta-murtina

mat-sthani sarva-bhutani
ma caham tesv avasthitah

na ca mat-sthani bhutani
pasya me yogam aisvaram

bhuta-bhrn na ca bhuta-stho
mamatma bhuta-bhavanah
