Adi-lila, Chapter 5 391

in the higher planets. Throughout his life, the gross materialist who is constantly
after sense gratification spends all day earning his livelihood to maintain his family,
and at night he wastes his energy in sex enjoyment or else goes to sleep thinking
about all he has done in the daytime. That is the monotonous life of the materialist.
Although differently graded as businessmen, lawyers, politicians, professors, judges,
coolies, pickpockets, laborers and so on, materialists all simply engage in eating,
sleeping, fearing and sense gratification and thus spoil their valuable lives pursuing
luxury and neglecting to perfect their lives through spiritual realization.

Yogis, however, try to perfect their lives, and therefore Bhagavad-gitd enjoins
that everyone should become a yogi. Yoga is the system for linking the soul in the
service of the Lord. Only under superior guidance can one practice such yoga in his
life without changing his social position. As already described, a yog7 can go anywhere
he desires without mechanical help, for a yog? can place his mind and intelligence
within the air circulating inside his body, and by practicing the art of breath control
he can mix that air with the air that blows all over the universe outside his body.
With the help of this universal air, a yog7 can travel to any planet and get a body
suitable for its atmosphere. We can understand this process by comparing it to the
electronic transmission of radio messages. With radio transmitters, sound waves
produced at a certain station can travel all over the earth in seconds. But sound is
produced from the ethereal sky, and as already explained, subtler than the ethereal
sky is the mind, and finer than the mind is the intelligence. Spirit is still finer than
the intelligence, and by nature it is completely different from matter. Thus we can
just imagine how quickly the spirit soul can travel through the universal atmosphere.

To come to the stage of manipulating finer elements like mind, intelligence and
spirit, one needs appropriate training, an appropriate mode of life and appropriate
association. Such training depends upon sincere prayers, devotional service, achieve-
ment of success in mystic perfection, and the successful merging of oneself in the
activities of the soul and Supersoul. A gross materialist, whether he be an empiric
philosopher, a scientist, a psychologist or whatever, cannot attain such success
through blunt efforts and word jugglery.

Materialists who perform yajfias, or great sacrifices, are comparatively better than
grosser materialists who do not know anything beyond laboratories and test tubes.
The advanced materialists who perform such sacrifices can reach the planet called
Vaisvanara, a fiery planet similar to the sun. On this planet, which is situated on the
way to Brahmaloka, the topmost planet in the universe, such an advanced materialist
can free himself from all traces of vice and its effects. When such a materialist is
purified, he can rise to the orbit of the pole star (Dhruvaloka). Within this orbit,
which is called the Sisumara cakra, are situated the Aditya-lokas and the Vaikuntha
planet within this universe.

A purified materialist who has performed many sacrifices, undergone severe
penances and given the major portion of his wealth in charity can reach such
planets as Dhruvaloka, and if he becomes still more qualified there, he can penetrate
still higher orbits and pass through the navel of the universe to reach the planet
Maharloka, where sages like Bhrgu Muni live. In Maharloka one can live even to the
time of the partial annihilation of the universe. This annihilation begins when
