200 THE SCIENCE OF SELF-REALIZATION

Hindus was quite different from the original Manu-smrti.

Srila Prabhupada: They have now made changes. Even our late Pandita
Jawaharlal Nehru introduced his own Hindu code. He introduced the
right of divorce in marriage, but this was not in the Manu-samhitd. There
are so many things they have changed, but before this modern age the
whole human society was governed by the Manu-smrti. Strictly speaking,
modern Hindus are not strictly following the Hindu scriptures.

But our point is not to try to bring back the old type of Hindu society.
That is impossible. Our idea is to take the best ideas from the original
idea. For example, in the Srimad-Bhagavatam there is a description of the
communist idea. It is described to Maharaja Yudhisthira. If there is some-
thing good, a good experience, why shouldn’t you adopt it? That is our
point of view. Besides that, modern civilization is missing one all-
important point—the aim of human life. Scientifically, the aim of human
life is self-realization, dtma-tattva. It is said that unless the members of
human society come to the point of self-realization, they are defeated in
whatever they do. Actually it is happening in modern society, despite all
economic advancement and other advancement: instead of keeping
peace and tranquillity, they are fighting—individually, socially, politi-
cally, and nationally. If we think about it in a cool-headed way, we
can see that in spite of much improvement in many branches of knowl-
edge, we are keeping the same mentality that is visible in the lower
animal society. Our conclusion, according to the Srimad-Bhagavatam, is
that this human body is not meant for working hard for sense gratifica-
tion. But people do not know anything beyond that. They do not know
about the next life. There is no scientific department of knowledge to
study what happens after this body is finished. That is a great department
of knowledge.

In the Bhagavad-gitd [2.13] it is said, dehino ’smin yatha dehe. Deha
means ‘‘this body.’’ Dehinah means ‘‘the one who owns this body.”
Dehino ’smin yatha dehe kaumadram yauvanam jarda. The dehi, the owner of
the body, is within, and the body is changing from one form to another.
The child has a certain type of body that changes to another type when he
is older. But the owner of the body still exists throughout. Similarly,
when this body is completely changed, we accept another body. People
do not understand this. We are accepting different bodies, even in this
life, from babyhood to childhood to boyhood to youth. That is a fact—
everyone knows it. I was a child, but that childhood body is no more. I
have a different body now. What is the difficulty in understanding that
