Meditation and the Self Within

Can meditation solve our everyday problems? Is there life after death? Can
drugs help us achieve self-realization? During a visit to South Africa, Srila
Prabhupdda answers these and other questions for interviewer Bill Faill of the
Durban Natal Mercury.

Srila Prabhupada: Krsna is a name for God which means “<all-
attractive.’ Unless one is all-attractive he cannot be God. So Krsna con-
sciousness means God consciousness. All of us are small particles of
God, equal in quality with Him. Our position as living entities is like that
of a small particle of gold in relation to a large quantity of gold.

Mr. Faill: Are we something like sparks in a fire?

Srila Prabhupada: Yes. Both the fire and the spark are fire, but one is
big, and the other is very small. Unlike the relationship between the
spark and the fire, however, our relationship with God is eternal,
although at the present moment we have forgotten that relationship due
to contact with the material energy. We are facing so many problems only
because of this forgetfulness. If we can revive our original God con-
sciousness, then we shall become happy. This is the sum and substance
of Krsna consciousness. It is the best process by which to revive our
original God consciousness. There are different processes of self-
realization, but in the present age of Kali, people are very fallen, and they
require the simple process of Krsna consciousness. Now they are think-
ing that so-called material advancement is the solution to their problems,
but this is not a fact. The real solution is to get out of the material condi-
tion entirely by becoming Krsna conscious. Because God is eternal, we
are also eternal, but in the material condition we are thinking, ‘‘I am this
body,”’ and therefore we must repeatedly change from body to body.
This is due to ignorance. Actually we are not our bodies but spiritual
sparks, parts and parcels of God.

Mr. Faill: Then the body is just like a vehicle for the soul?

158
