The nature of Reality

The following essay is based on a lecture by Radhanath Swami entitled ‘Significance of Krishna’s Appearance’, 1995


The living entity is the spirit soul, not the body. The spirit soul provides the spark of consciousness to the body. There are 8 million 4 hundred thousand species of life, which a particular living entity attains due to past conditioning. The living entity does not realize this truth and is engaged in a bitter struggle to survive. The living entity makes futile attempts to enjoy the material energy but meets with disease, old age and death. However, only the body perishes while the soul is eternal. In the conditioned state the soul is caught is this vicious cycle of birth and death. Love of God is the only way out of this entanglements and masses are simply ignorant about this. Out of His causeless mercy, the Supreme Lord decides to descend from His abode and help the living entities out this predicament. The Supreme Lord exhibits his pastimes on Earth in order to annihilate the miscreants and to protect his devotees. How does one recognize who God is? Anybody might claim to be god and say he has come to fulfill this purpose. The vedic scriptures say that God is that person who has all the six opulences in full. These six opulences are – all the beauty, all the fame, all the knowledge, all the renunciation, all the wealth and all the power. The Supreme Lord is understood to be Sri Kriishna, as he descends and exhibits the six opulences in full. Sri Krishna also descends as Caitanya Mahaprabhu and propagates the sublime of God realization by the congregational chanting of the holy names of God – Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare!