The Wise Man

Since no one can trace the history of the living

entity's entanglement in material energy, the Lord
says that it is beginningless. By beginningless it is
meant that conditional life exists prior to the
creation; it is simply manifested during and after
the creation. Due to forgetfulness of his nature, the
living entity, although spirit, suffers all kinds of
miseries in material existence. It should be
understood that there are also living entities who
are not entangled in this material energy but are
situated in the spiritual world. They are called
liberated souls and are always engaged
in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, devotional service.
The activities of those who are conditioned by
material nature are taken into account, and in their
next life, according to these activities, they are
offered different types of material bodies. In the
material world the conditioned spirit soul is
subjected to various rewards and punishments.
When he is rewarded for his righteous activities, he
is elevated to the higher planets where he becomes
one of the many demigods, and when he is punished
for his abominable activities, he is thrown into
hellish planets where he suffers the miseries of
material existence more
acutely. Caitanya Mahāprabhu gives a very nice
example of this punishment. Formerly a king used
to punish a criminal by dunking him in the river,
raising him up again for breath and then again
dunking him in the water. Material nature punishes
and rewards the individual entity in just the same
way. When he is punished, he is dunked in the water
of material miseries, and when he is rewarded, he is
taken out of it for some time. Elevation to the higher
planets or to a higher life status is never permanent.
One must again come down to be submerged in the
water. All this is constantly going on in this material
existence; sometimes one is elevated to higher
planetary systems, and sometimes one is thrown
into the hellish condition of material life.
In this regard Caitanya Mahāprabhu recites a
verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam taken from the
instructions of Nārada Muni to Vasudeva, the father
of Kṛṣṇa (SB 11.2.37):
bhayaṁ dvitīyābhiniveśataḥ syād
īśād apetasya viparyayo 'smṛtiḥ
tan-māyayāto budha ābhajet taṁ
bhaktyaikayeśaṁ guru-devatātmā
In this quotation from the nine sages who were
instructing Mahārāja Nimi, māyā is defined as
"forgetfulness of one's relationship with Kṛṣṇa."
Actually, māyā means "that which is not." It has no
existence. Thus it is false to think that the living
entity has no connection with the Supreme Lord. He
may not believe in the existence of God, or he may
think that he has no relationship with God, but
these are all "illusions," or māyā. Due to absorption
in this false conception of life, man is always fearful
and full of anxieties. In other words, a godless
concept of life is māyā. One who is actually learned
in the Vedic literatures surrenders unto the
Supreme Lord with great devotion and accepts Him
as the supreme goal. When a living entity forgets the
constitutional nature of his relationship with God,
he is at once overwhelmed by the external energy.
This is the cause of his false ego, his false
identification of the body with the self. Indeed, his
whole conception of the material universe arises
from this false identification with the body, for he
becomes attached to the body and its by-products.
To escape this entanglement, he has only to perform
his duty and to surrender unto the Supreme Lord
with intelligence and devotion and with
sincere Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
A conditioned soul falsely thinks himself happy
in the material world, but if he is favored by the
instructions of an unalloyed devotee, he gives up his
desire for material enjoyment and becomes
enlightened in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As soon as one
enters into Kṛṣṇa consciousness, his desire for
material enjoyment is at once vanquished, and he
gradually becomes free from material entanglement.
There is no question of darkness where there is
light, and Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the light that
dispels the darkness of material sense enjoyment.
A Kṛṣṇa conscious person is never under the false
conception that he is one with God. Knowing that he
would not be happy by working for himself, he
engages all his energies in the service of the
Supreme Lord and thereby gains release from the
clutches of illusory material energy. In this
connection, Caitanya Mahāprabhu quotes the
following verse from Bhagavad-gītā:
daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī
mama māyā duratyayā
 mām eva ye prapadyante
māyām etāṁ taranti te
"The divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three
modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome.
But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily
cross beyond it." (Bg. 7.14)
Caitanya Mahāprabhu went on to teach that for
each and every moment he is engaged in some
fruitive activity, the conditioned soul forgets his real
identity. Sometimes when he is fatigued, when he is
tired of material activities, he wants liberation and
hankers to become one with the Supreme Lord, but
at other times he thinks that by working hard to
gratify his senses he will be happy. In either case, he
is covered by material energy. For the
enlightenment of such bewildered conditioned
souls, the Supreme Lord has presented voluminous
Vedic literatures such as the Vedas, the purāṇas and
the Vedānta-sūtra. These are all intended to guide
the human being back to
Godhead. Caitanya Mahāprabhu has given further
instructions by explaining that when a conditioned
soul is accepted by the mercy of the spiritual master
and is guided by the Supersoul and the various
Vedic scriptures, he becomes enlightened and
makes progress in spiritual realization. It is because
Lord Kṛṣṇa is always merciful upon His devotees
that He has presented all these Vedic literatures by
which one can understand his relationship with
Him and can act on the basis of that relationship. In
this way one is gifted with the ultimate goal of life.
 Actually every living entity is destined to reach
the Supreme Lord. Indeed, it is possible for
everyone to understand his relationship with the
Supreme. The execution of duties to attain
perfection is known as devotional service, and in
maturity such devotional service becomes love of
God, the factual goal of life for every living being.
Actually the living entity is not intended to achieve
success in religious rituals, economic development
or sense enjoyment. The living entity should not
even desire success in liberation, what to speak of
success in religion, economics and sense enjoyment.
One's real desire should only be to achieve the stage
of loving transcendental service to the Lord. The all-
attractive features of Lord Kṛṣṇa help one in
attaining this transcendental service, and it is by
such service in Kṛṣṇa consciousness that one can
realize the relationship between Kṛṣṇa and himself.
Concerning man's search for the ultimate goal of
life, Caitanya Mahāprabhu relates a story from the
commentary of Madhva which occurs in the Fifth
Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Madhva-
bhāṣya) Sarvajña to a poor man who came to him to
have his future told. When Sarvajña saw the
horoscope of the man, he was at once astonished
that the man was so poor, and he said to him, "Why
are you so unhappy? From your horoscope I can see
that you have a hidden treasure left to you by your
father. However, the horoscope indicates that your
father could not disclose this to you because he died
in a foreign place, but now you can search out this
treasure and be happy." This story is cited because
the living entity is suffering due to his ignorance of
the hidden treasure of his Supreme Father, Kṛṣṇa.
That treasure is love of Godhead, and in every Vedic
scripture the conditioned soul is advised to find it.
As stated in Bhagavad-gītā, although the
conditioned soul is the son of the wealthiest
personality-the Personality of Godhead-he does not
realize it. Therefore Vedic literatures are given to
him to help him search out his father and his
paternal property.
The astrologer Sarvajña further advised the poor
man: "Don't dig on the southern side of your house
to find the treasure, for if you do so you will be
attacked by a poisonous wasp and will be baffled.
The search should be conducted on the eastern side
where there is actual light, which is called
devotional service or Kṛṣṇa consciousness. On the
southern side there are Vedic rituals, and on the
western side there is mental speculation, and on the
northern side there is meditational yoga."
Sarvajña's advice should be carefully noted by
everyone. If one searches for the ultimate goal by
the ritualistic process, he will surely be baffled. Such
a process involves the performance of rituals under
the guidance of a priest who takes money in
exchange for service. A man may think he will be
happy by performing such rituals, but actually if he
does gain some result from them, it is only
temporary. His material distresses will continue.
Thus he will never become truly happy by following
the ritualistic process. Instead, he will simply
increase his material pangs more and more. The
same may be said for digging on the northern side,
or searching for the treasure by means of the
meditational yoga process. By this process a person
thinks of becoming one with the Supreme Lord, but
this merging into the Supreme is like being
swallowed by a large serpent. Sometimes a large
serpent swallows a smaller one, and merging into
the spiritual existence of the Supreme is analogous.
While the small serpent is searching after
perfection, he is swallowed. Obviously there is no
solution here. On the western side there is also an
impediment in the form of a yakṣa, an evil spirit
who protects the treasure. The idea is that a hidden
treasure can never be found by one who asks the
favor of a yakṣa in order to attain it. The result is
that one will simply be killed. This yakṣa is the
speculative mind, and in this case the speculative
process of self-realization, or the jñāna process, is
also suicidal.
The only possibility then is to search for the
hidden treasure on the eastern side by the process of
devotional service in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Indeed, that process of devotional service is the
perpetual hidden treasure, and when one attains to
it, he becomes perpetually rich. One who is poor in
devotional service to Kṛṣṇa is always in need of
material gain. Sometimes he suffers the bites of
poisonous creatures, and sometimes he is baffled;
sometimes he follows the philosophy of monism and
thereby loses his identity, and sometimes he is
swallowed by a large serpent. It is only by
abandoning all this and becoming fixed
in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, devotional service to the
Lord, that one can actually achieve the perfection of
life.