Choosing a Spiritual Master 715
better judgment, chosen to completely identify ourselves with this pres-
ent material existence, our sufferings have multiplied according to the
mexorable law of birth and death, with its consequent diseases and anxi-
eties. These sufferings cannot be really mitigated by any provision of
material happiness, because matter and spirit are completely different
elements. It is just as if you took an aquatic animal out of water and put it
on the land, supplying all manner of happiness possible on land. The
deadly sufferings of the animal are not capable of being relieved at all un-
tal it is taken out of its foreign environment. Spirit and matter are com-
pletely contradictory things. All of us are spiritual entities. We cannot
have perfect happiness, which is our birthright, however much we may
meddle with the affairs of mundane things. Perfect happiness can be ours
only when we are restored to our natural state of spiritual existence. This
B the distinctive message of our ancient Indian civilization, this is the
message of the Gita, this is the message of the Vedas and the Puranas, and
this is the message of all the real dcdryas, including our present
Acaryadeva, in the line of Lord Caitanya.

Gentlemen, although it is imperfectly that we have been enabled by
his grace to understand the sublime messages of our Acadryadeva, Om
Visnupada Paramaharnsa Parivrajakacarya Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta
Sarasvati Goswami Maharaja, we must admit that we have realized
definitely that the divine message from his holy lips is the congenial thing
for suffering humanity. All of us should hear him patiently. If we listen to .
the transcendental sound without unnecessary opposition, he will surely
lave mercy upon us. The Acdrya’s message is to take us back to our
q@miginal home, back to God. Let me repeat, therefore, that we should
hear him patiently, follow him in the measure of our conviction, and bow
down at his lotus feet for releasing us from our present causeless un-
walingness for serving the Absolute and all souls.

From the Gitd we learn that even after the destruction of the body, the
@@md, or the soul, is not destroyed; he is always the same, always new and
Gesh. Fire cannot burn him, water cannot dissolve him, the air cannot
@y him up, and the sword cannot kill him. He is everlasting and eternal,
and this is also confirmed in the Srimad-Bhdgavatam [10.84.13]:

yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke
sva-dhih kalatradisu bhauma ijya-dhih

yat-tirtha-buddhih salile na karhicij
Jjanesv abhijfiesu sa eva go-kharah
