A Second Chance:
The Story of a Near-Death Experience
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Chapter 10
The Next Life: It’s Up to Us
The Yamadutas continued: “O best of the demigods, we can see three different varieties of life, which are due to the contamination of the three modes of nature. The living entities are thus known as peaceful, restless, and foolish; as happy, unhappy, or in-between; or as religious, irreligious, and semireligious. We can deduce that in the next life these three kinds of material nature will similarly act. Just as springtime in the present indicates the nature of springtimes in the past and future, so this life of happiness, distress, or a mixture of both gives evidence concerning the religious and irreligious activities of one’s past and future lives.
“The omnipotent Yamaraja is as good as Lord Brahma, for while situated in his own abode and in everyone’s heart like the Paramatma, he mentally observes the past activities of a living entity and thus understands how the living entity will act in future lives.
“As a sleeping person acts according to the body manifested in his dreams and accepts it to be himself, so one identifies with his present body, which he acquired because of his past religious or irreligious actions, and is unable to know his past or future lives.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.46–49)
Breaking Free of Past, Present, and Future Karma
Here the Yamadutas point out that the actions and reactions of the three modes of material nature are visible in this life. For example, some people are very happy, some are very distressed, and some are in mixed happiness and distress. This is the result of past association with the modes of material nature—goodness, passion, and ignorance. Since these varieties are visible in this life, we may assume that the living entities, according to their association with the different modes of material nature, will be happy, distressed, or between the two in their next lives also. Therefore the best policy is to disassociate oneself from the three modes of material nature and be always transcendental to their contamination. This is possible only when one fully engages in the devotional service of the Lord, as Krsna confirms in the Bhagavad-gita (14.26):
mam ca yo ’vyabhicarena
bhakti-yogena sevate
sa gunan samatityaitan
brahma-bhuyaya kalpate
“One who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.” Unless one is fully absorbed in the service of the Lord, one will be subjected to the contamination of the three modes of material nature and must therefore experience distress or mixed happiness and distress, depending on the severity of one’s sinful activities.
Changing Bodies
The Supreme Lord has appointed Yamaraja to decide the proper punishment for those who perform sinful activities. Thus at death each being is awarded a particular body in a particular place, according to his work. As Lord Kapila explains in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (3.31.1),
karmana daiva-netrena
jantur dehopapattaye
striyah pravista udaram
pumso retah-kanasrayah
“Under the supervision of the Supreme Lord and according to the result of his work, the living entity, the soul, is made to enter the womb of a woman through the particle of male semen to assume a particular type of body.”
We are changing our bodies every day, at every moment. It is called “growth,” but actually it is a change of body. Growing means leaving the old body and accepting a new body. After some years we can see that a child has grown to boyhood, then to youth. That means he has changed his body. Similarly, when we find that the body is no longer inhabitable, we have to give it up and accept another body, just as we have to give up our clothes when they become old and worn.
This change is executed under the supervision of higher authorities (daiva-netrena). According to one’s religious and irreligious acts, one has to accept a particular type of body in a particular position and suffer. Our sufferings are classified as adhibhautika, adhyatmika, and adhidaivika. Adhyatmika miseries are those caused by our own bodies and minds, adhibhautika miseries are those inflicted by other living entities, and adhidaivika miseries are those which are inflicted by higher authorities (devas) and which are completely beyond our control—such as earthquake, drought, flood, and famine. We cannot adjust these situations. In the same way, after death superior authorities will offer us a certain type of body, and we cannot say, “Oh no, sir, I do not want this body.” We have to accept it.
Minute Independence
Due to repeated birth and death in so many material bodies, we have all forgotten that we are part and parcel of God, that we have an intimate relationship with Him, and that somehow or other we have fallen into this material world. It is very difficult to exactly pinpoint the origin of this forgetfulness. But even though we have forgotten Him since time immemorial, Krsna is so merciful that to remind us of our spiritual identity and our oneness with Him as His parts, He comes personally and teaches us what we have forgotten. And when He departs He leaves behind the scripture, especially the Bhagavad-gita, where He requests, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja: “Please give up all your nonsense and surrender unto Me. I shall give you all protection.” (Bhagavad-gita 18.66)
Krsna is the father of all living entities. He is not happy that all these souls in the material world are rotting like hogs. Therefore He sends His representatives. In the case of Lord Jesus Christ, Krsna sent His son. Lord Jesus claimed to be the son of God. Everyone is a son of God, but this son was an especially favorite son, and he was sent to a particular place to reclaim the conditioned souls back home, back to Godhead.
But if the conditioned souls insist on staying here, what can Krsna or His servant do? They allow us to go on with our materialistic activities, because the first condition for getting out of the material prison house is that we must desire to get out. When we finally become disgusted with our predicament, we pray, “My dear Lord, I have served lust, anger, and greed for so long, but they are still unsatisfied, and now I have become disgusted with serving them. Now, my dear Lord Krsna, my intelligence is awakened, and I have come to You. Please engage me in Your service.”
The living entity is the marginal energy (tatastha-sakti) of the Lord, which means he can choose to be controlled by Krsna’s inferior, material energy or His superior, spiritual energy. We devotees have chosen to come to Krsna consciousness. In other words, we have agreed to surrender to Krsna and submit to the protection of His internal, spiritual energy. Surrender to Krsna begins with chanting the Hare Krsna mantra: Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. The word Hare indicates the devotional energy of Krsna, Krsna means “the all-attractive Supreme Personality of Godhead,” and Rama means “the Supreme Enjoyer.”
But there are many who will not come, because they do not agree to come under the control of Krsna’s spiritual energy. But Krsna does not interfere. He says, “You may remain in the material world or come to Me—whatever you like.” We have been given minute independence and the intelligence to discriminate between what to do and what not to do.
Wake Up!
The ear is the most important organ for learning what is to be done and what is not to be done for our ultimate benefit. We must hear from the superior authority. At night we sleep peacefully, unaware that someone might be coming to chop off our head. However, our sense of hearing is acute, even in the sleeping state. If someone cries out, “Wake up! Wake up! Someone is coming to kill you!” we can be saved. Similarly, we are sleeping under the influence of material nature. We seem to be awake and acting, but prakrti (material nature) is doing the acting—not us. We are being forced to act according to our association with the different modes of material nature. Although we are in the sleeping condition, our ear does not sleep, and it helps us to rise out of ignorance. If we hear from the right person—the spiritual master—and from the Vedic scriptures, we can awaken to our original, constitutional position as eternal servants of Krsna. The first prescription is sravanam, hearing about Krsna. If we simply hear about Krsna, we will automatically wake up. The injunction of the Vedas is uttisthata jagrata prapya varan nibodhata: “Wake up! Get up! Understand the great benediction you have in this human form of life. Now utilize it and get free from the clutches of the material modes of nature.” In the Bhagavad-gita (7.14) Krsna explains how to do this:
daivi hy esa guna-mayi
mama maya duratyaya
mam eva ye prapadyante
mayam etam taranti te
“This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered to Me can easily cross beyond it.” Surrender to Krsna and be Krsna conscious. In the human form of life, that is our only business.