“O son of Kunté, at the end of the millennium every material manifestation enters unto My nature, and at the beginning of another millennium, by My potency I again create. The whole cosmic order is under Me. By My will is it manifested again and again, and by My will is it annihilated at the end.” (Bg. 9.7-8)

All of these living entities are subject to the threefold miseries, including those miseries pertaining to the body and mind. Animals cannot understand that they are suffering, but human beings can. One who does not know that he is suffering is in animal consciousness. Animals may be standing behind a fence to be slaughtered, but they do not understand this. As human beings, we should be cognizant that we are suffering the pains of birth, old age, disease and death and should be inquisitive to know how to avoid these miseries. We have been suffering from the beginning of our birth when as a baby we were tightly placed for nine months in the womb of a mother. After birth, suffering continues; although a mother may take much care for her child, the baby still cries. Why? Because he is suffering. Either a bug is biting, or there is a pain in the stomach or some other malady. Whatever the case, the suffering goes on. The child also suffers when he is forced to go to school when he does not want to. The child does not want to study, but the teacher gives him tasks anyway. If we carefully analyze our lives, we will find that they are full of suffering. Generally speaking, conditioned souls are not very intelligent, and therefore they go on suffering without ever inquiring why. We should understand, however, that this suffering is there, and if there is a remedy we must take advantage of it.

The great sage Åñabhadeva instructed his sons in this way: “My dear boys, in this life you have acquired these beautiful bodies. Now you should know that they are not meant for sense gratification like the bodies of hogs and dogs but for spiritual realization.” Essentially what Åñabhadeva is saying is that a life of sense gratification is meant for stool eaters like hogs, and now that we have a higher form of life, we should not try to imitate the lower forms. Recently we were surprised to see, while walking in Central park in New York City, that a group of young American boys and girls were engaged in worshiping hogs. While we were chanting Hare Kåñëa, these groups of youngsters were chanting, “Hog! Hog! Hog!” They were actually parading with hogs in Central park and bowing down before them and worshiping them. They actually wanted one hog to become president, and they wanted the hogs to lead them. This has gone to such lengths that at one be—in in Seattle there was a demonstration with hogs in which the boys and girls undressed themselves and got in the mud and played with the hogs, and in this way they were associating with the hogs and pigs which they worshiped. All this is going on in a country where the young people have good looking bodies, a great deal of money and so many other advantages over the young people of other nations. The result of gaining all these advantages is that they have simply taken to hog worship. Such hog worship was anticipated long, long ago and was described in Çrémad-Bhägavatam, which was compiled at least 5,000 years ago. The point is that a beautiful situation in life should be utilized for a beautiful end, not for degraded forms of worship.

In the Vedic histories we find that there were many, many exalted emperors and kings who practiced austerities and penances. Dhruva Mahäräja, Ambaréña Mahäräja and Yudhiñöhira Mahäräja were all great kings and were most opulent, but at the same time they were great sages. Thus they set the example for those who have acquired this good opportunity of a beautiful human form of life with all the facilities for economic development and good living. This opportunity should be used to attain an even better life, and this can be actualized by practice of penance. At present we are existing in these material bodies, but if we take to the process of Kåñëa consciousness, our consciousness will be purified. Although American and European, the young students who are voluntarily practicing Kåñëa consciousness are very pleased to practice it. The process is not troublesome but pleasing. Now they are realizing that purified existence constitutes the difference between animal life and human life.

If we purify our existence simply by following the basic regulations of Kåñëa consciousness, which involve abstaining from illicit sexual connection, meat-eating, intoxication and gambling, we will gradually rise to attain our spiritual existence, which is completely pure. The sage Åñabhadeva told his sons that once they purified their existence they would have unlimited happiness. We are all intended to attain peace and happiness, but whatever peace and happiness we find in this material world is limited. If we but purify our existence and attain spiritual existence, we will experience unlimited peace and happiness.

The spiritual world is not dry or abstract; as pointed out before, there is variegatedness there. A part of the spiritual pleasure experienced in the Vaikuëöhas is the pleasure of dancing. There are also young girls and young boys there. Indeed, there is no such thing as old age, or disease, or death, or the pains of birth. If we want to participate in the unlimited happiness, knowledge and eternal life which constitute our actual heritage in the spiritual world, we should not waste this life by working hard for sense gratification and worshiping hogs. We should accept a life devoted to the cultivation of Kåñëa consciousness, and then we will get unlimited happiness and unlimited pleasure. This is the sum and substance of the Kåñëa consciousness movement.