200 - Cheaters & Cheated, Compassion, Getting Out of Cage (“Life Comes From Life” Chapter 7)

Dr. Singh. But doesn't the living entity need matter as long as he is in material nature? Śrīla Prabhupāda. No, the living entity is purely spiritual; therefore, he doesn't require matter. Because his thinking is diseased, however, he believes he does. The conditioned living entity is like a drunkard who doesn't require drinking, but who nevertheless thinks, "Without drinking, I shall die." This is called māyā, or illusion. is it true that if a drunkard doesn't get his drink, he will die? Dr. Singh. No, but if a man doesn't eat, he will die. Śrīla Prabhupāda. That's also not a fact. Last night we were discussing Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī.(11) In his later life, he almost completely abstained from eating and sleeping. He would drink only a little buttermilk every three or four days, and he worked twenty - two hours a day, sleeping two or three. And some days he did not sleep at all. So you may ask, "How could he survive?" Actually, he lived for one hundred years. Eating, sleeping, mating and defending were not problems for Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, but still he lived. Because he was a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa, he was fully aware that the soul is eternal and independent, although it has been put into this bodily cage, which it actually does not require. Suppose a bird is encaged. Is he living simply because he is in the cage? Without the cage he is free. People are thinking that by being encaged within the body they are happy. That is nonsense. Actually, our encagement within this body makes us fearful. But as soon as we purify our existence - we do not even have to come out of our bodies - we will immediately be abhaya, fearless. | read here: www.biglink.to/lifecomesfromlife