Practicing Yoga in the Age of Quarrel 137

death, birth, disease, and old age. It is an eternal body, full of knowledge
and bliss. Different bodies are created by different desires. As long as we
have desires for different kinds of enjoyment, we have to accept different
kinds of material bodies. Krsna, God, is so kind that He awards whatever
we want. If we want a tiger’s body, with tigerlike strength and teeth with
which to capture animals and suck fresh blood, then Krsna will give us
the opportunity. And if we want the body of a saintly person, a devotee
engaged only in the service of the Lord, then He will give us that body.
This is stated in the Bhagavad-gita.

If a person engaged in yoga, the process of self-realization, somehow
or other fails to complete the process, he is given another chance; he is
given birth in a family of a pure brahmana or a rich man. If one is fortu-
nate enough to take birth in such a family, he gets all facilities to under-
stand the importance of self-realization. From the very beginning of life
our Krsna conscious children are getting the opportunity to learn how to
chant and dance, so when they are grown up they will not change, but in-
stead will automatically make progress. They are very fortunate. Regard-
less of whether he is born in America or Europe, a child will advance if
his father and mother are devotees. He gets this opportunity. If a child
takes birth in a family of devotees, this means that in his last life he had
already taken to the yoga process, but somehow or other he could not
finish it. Therefore the child is given another opportunity to make
progress under the care of a good father and mother so that he will again
advance. In this way, as soon as one completes his development of God
consciousness, then he no longer has to take birth in this material world,
but returns to the spiritual world.

Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita: ‘‘My dear Arjuna, if one understands
My appearance, disappearance, and activities, simply because of this un-
derstanding he is given the opportunity to take birth in the spiritual world
after giving up this body.’’ One has to give up this body—today, tomor-
row, or maybe the day after that. One has to. But a person who has under-
stood Krsna will not have to take another material body. He goes directly
to the spiritual world and takes birth in one of the spiritual planets. So
Krsna says that as soon as one gets this body—it doesn’t matter if it is
from India or the moon or the sun or Brahmaloka or anywhere within
this material world—one should know that it is due to his sinful activities.
There are degrees of sinful activities, so according to the degree of sinful-
ness, one takes a material body. Therefore our real problem is not how to
eat, sleep, mate, and defend—our real problem is how to get a body
which is not material but spiritual. That is the ultimate solution to all
