Adi-fila, Chapter 5 387

edge and so on. Nevertheless, all these qualities are mixed with passion and imper-
fection. But the qualities in Vaikuntha are a manifestation of God’s internal potency,
and therefore they are purely spiritual and transcendental, with no trace of material
infection. No material planet, even Satyaloka, is comparable in quality to the spiritual
planets, where the five inherent qualities of the material world—namely, ignorance,
misery, egoism, anger and envy—are completely absent.

In the material world, everything is a creation. Anything we can think of within
our experience, including even our own bodies and minds, was created. This process
of creation began with the life of Brahma, and the creative principle is prevalent all
over the material universe because of the quality of passion. But since the quality
of passion is conspicuous by its absence in the Vaikuntha planets, nothing there is
created; everything there is eternally existent. And because there is no mode of
ignorance, there is also no question of annihilation or destruction. In the material
world one may try to make everything permanent by developing the above-
mentioned qualities of goodness, but because the goodness in the material world
is mixed with passion and ignorance, nothing here can exist permanently, despite
all the good plans of the best scientific brains. Therefore in the material world we
have no experience of eternity, bliss and fullness of knowledge. But in the spiritual
world, because of the complete absence of the qualitative modes, everything is
eternal, blissful and cognizant. Everything can speak, everything can move, every-
thing can hear, and everything can see in fully blessed existence for eternity. The
situation being so, naturally space and time, in the forms of past, present and future,
have no influence there. In the spiritual sky there is no change because time has no
influence. Consequently, the influence of maya, the total external energy, which
induces us to become more and more materialistic and forget our relationship with
God, is also absent there.

As spiritual sparks of the beams emanating from the transcendental body of the
Lord, we are all permanently related with Him and equal to Him in quality. The
material energy is a covering of the spiritual spark, but in the absence of that
material covering, the living beings in Vaikunthaloka are never forgetful of their
identities; they are eternally cognizant of their relationship with God in their
constitutional position of rendering transcendental loving service to the Lord. Be-
cause they constantly engage in the transcendental service of the Lord, it is natural
to conclude that their senses are also transcendental, for one cannot serve the Lord
with material senses. The inhabitants of Vaikunthaloka do not possess material
senses with which to lord it over material nature.

Persons with a poor fund of knowledge conclude that a place void of material
qualities must be some sort of formless nothingness. In reality, however, there are
qualities in the spiritual world, but they are different from the material qualities
because.everything there is eternal, unlimited and pure. The atmosphere there is
self-illuminating, and thus there is no need of a sun, a moon or fire, electricity and
so on. One whocan reach that abode does not come back to the material world with
a material body. There is no difference between atheists and the faithful in the
Vaikuntha planets because all who settle there are freed from the material qualities,
and thus swras and asuras become equally obedient loving servitors of the Lord.
