KRSNA THE RESERVOIR OF PLEASURE

By A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Krsna— this sound is transcendental. Krsna means the highest pleasure. All of us,
every living being, seeks pleasure. But we do not know how to seek pleasure
perfectly. With a materialistic concept of life, we are frustrated at every step in
satisfying our pleasure because we have no information regarding the real level on
which to have real pleasure. For the last few weeks we have been learning that we
are not this body; we are consciousness. Not exactly consciousness, for consciousness
is actually the symptom of our real identity: we are pure soul, now merged within this
material body. Modern material science lays no stress on this; therefore the scientists
are sometimes misled in their understanding of spirit soul. But spirit soul is a fact,
which anyone can understand by the presence of consciousness. Any child can
understand that consciousness is the symptom of the spirit soul.

Now the whole process we are trying to learn from the Bhagavad-gita (The Song of
God) is how to bring ourselves to this level of consciousness. And if we act from the
level of consciousness, then we may not be pushed again into the level of this bodily
conception; and, if we can continue on that level, if we can continue to act in pure
consciousness, then, at the end of this body we shall be free from material
contamination, our spiritual life will be revived, and the ultimate result will be that
in our next life, after leaving this body, we shall have our full, eternal spiritual life.
Spirit, as we have already discussed, is described as eternal.

Even after the destruction of this body, consciousness is not destroyed. Rather,
consciousness is transferred to another type of body and again makes us aware of the
material conception of life. That is also described in the Bhagavad-gita. At the time
of death, if our consciousness is pure, we can be sure that our next life will not be
material—our next life will be spiritual. If our consciousness is not pure at the point
of death, then, after leaving this body, we shall have to take another material body.
That is the process which is going on. That is Nature’s law.

We have now a final body. The body which we see is the gross body. It is just like a
shirt and coat: within the coat there is a shirt, and within the shirt there is a body.
Similarly, the pure soul is covered by a shirt and coat. The garments are the mind,
intelligence and false ego. False ego means the misconception that I am matter, that
I am a product of this material world. This misconception makes me localized. For
