Every morning at 7.45am, before breakfast, we have a philosophy class. It’s such a delight to sit together, read ancient wisdom books, and discuss. Henry David Thoreau said it well – “In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonical philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita, in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seems puny and trivial.”
On Mondays, we listen to a recorded class by Srila Prabhupada (there are over 2,000) and afterwards reflect on what parts of the lecture stood out for each of us.
This week it was a talk from a lecture he gave in France in 1975. Here’s what struck me – “If we simply become aware of this fact that “I am not this body, I am spirit soul. I am living within this body,” then immediately we become liberated from this material world. This can be understood by any sane man without any study of philosophy, simply by common sense. The simple philosophy is that the child is now possessing a small body, then he will possess a bigger body, then another fully adult body. In this way the child is there, the body is changing, that’s a fact. And the body changes so long the soul is there. Therefore, the conclusion should be the body and the soul, they are different. It is a very simple truth…”
A very simple truth – that we are not these bodies, we are a spirit soul living in the body. How wonderful!
Prabhupada continues – “If I say to the dog that “You are not this body, you are spirit soul, you are eternal,” he has no power to understand. A human being can understand. The human has the capacity. So we are trying to educate all people, all nations of the world to understand this one verse. Na jayate mriyate va kadacin. If he simply understands this one verse, he immediately becomes liberated. And actually, human life is meant for understanding this philosophy or this truth. Then one’s life is successful.”
Just one verse.
na jayate mriyate va kadacin
nayam bhutva bhavita va na bhuyah
ajo nityah sasvato ‘yam purano
na hanyate hanyamane sarire
“For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” Bhagavad-gita 2.20
This is our verse of the week. Post it all over the house, read it again and again, and meditate on it deeply. Memorize it. Think of it in the car, on the train, in the hospital, at the stove, in a meeting or wherever. It’s a lifeline to sanity, and ticket to another place. It’s a shelter from a stormy mind or an anxious heart. This gift of ‘a very simple truth’ in ‘just one verse’ can change our life. Take it.
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