144 THE SCIENCE OF SELF-REALIZATION
that the animal before him is being slaughtered, he will still stand there
contentedly eating the grass. This is animal life. He does not know that
next time it will be his turn and he will be slaughtered. I have seen it. Ina
Kali temple I have seen that a goat was standing there ready to be
sacrificed and another goat was very happily eating the grass.

Similarly, Maharaja Yudhisthira was asked by Yamardaja, ‘‘What is the
most wonderful thing in this world? Can you explain?’’ So Maharaja
Yudhisthira answered, ‘‘Yes. The most wonderful thing is that at every
moment one can see that his friends, his fathers, and his relatives have

7 died, but he is thinking, ‘I shall live forever.’ ’? He never thinks that he
will die, just as an animal never thinks that at the next moment he may
be slaughtered. He is satisfied with the grass, that’s all. He is satisfied
with the sense gratification. He does not know that he is also going to die.

My father has died, my mother has died, he has died, she has died. So I
will also have to die. Then what is after death? I do not know. This is the

. problem. People do not take this problem seriously, but the Bhagavad-
gita indicates that that is real education. Real education is to inquire why,
although we do not want to die, death comes. That is real inquiry. We do
not want to become old men. Why does old age come upon us? We have
many problems, but this is the sum and substance of all of them.

In order to solve this problem, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu prescribes
the chanting of Hare Krsna. As soon as our heart is cleansed by chanting
this Hare Krsna mantra, the blazing fire of our problematic material exis-
tence is extinguished. How is it extinguished? When we cleanse our
heart we will realize that we do not belong to this material world. Because
people are identifying with this material world, they are thinking, ‘‘I am
an Indian, I am an Englishman, I am this, I am that.’’ But if one chants
the Hare Krsna mantra, he will realize that he is not this material body.
“*T do not belong to this material body or this material world. I am a spirit
soul, part and parcel of the Supreme. I am eternally related with Him,
and I have nothing to do with the material world.”’ This is called libera-
tion, knowledge. If I don’t have anything to do with this material world,
then I am liberated. And that knowledge is called brahma-bhita.

A person with this realization has no duty to perform. Because we are
now identifying our existence with this material world, we have so many
duties. The Srimad-Bhagavatam says that as long as there is no self-
realization, we have so many duties and debts. We are indebted to the
demigods. The demigods are not merely fictitious. They are real. There
are demigods controlling the sun, the moon, and the air. Just as there are
directors of government departments, so for the heating department
