192 - Deciding for the Future ("Perfect Questions Perfect Answers", Ch 9)

Barbara: (Bob's wife) Can we decide what we want to be next life? Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes, you can decide. We have decided that next life we are going to Kṛṣṇa. This is our decision - back home, back to Godhead. Suppose you want to become educated. After this decision that you are going to be an engineer or you are going to be a medical practitioner, with that objective you prepare and educate yourself. Similarly, you can decide what you are going to do next life. But if you don't decide, then the material nature will decide. Barbara: Could I have been Kṛṣṇa conscious in my last life? Śrīla Prabhupāda: It doesn't matter. But you can become. Take advantage of our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. A devotee: She's asking if it was possible that in her last life she was a Kṛṣṇa devotee and has come back again. Śrīla Prabhupāda: When one is perfectly Kṛṣṇa's devotee, he does not come back. But if there is a little deficiency, then there is a possibility of coming back. But even though there is a deficiency, he comes back to a nice family. Śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe yoga-bhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate (BG 6.41). ("The unsuccessful yogī takes birth in a religious or aristocratic family.") Human intelligence can decide for the future. That is human intelligence. The animal cannot decide. We have discriminatory power. If I do this, I will be benefited; if I do that, I will not be benefited. This is there in human life. So you have to use it properly. You should know what is our goal of life and decide in that way. That is human civilization.... | Read along with me: www.biglink.to/perfect_questions_perfect_answers