JaneSmith105
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Veda means knowledge. The oldest known scriptures on the planet are the Vedas. They contain the science of material and spiritual knowledge. Everything that is knowable can be found in the Vedas. But man's senses are limited. If man is to gain a higher understanding of himself and the universe, then he must go beyond the information that is gathered through his sensory perception and find a source that is infallible. Vedic knowledge is handed down through a series of teachers in an unbroken chain called a disciplic succession. In a disciplic succession, all the members are highly qualified and all agree on the purpose of Vedic knowledge. They are all expert in explaining their conclusions, generally building on their conclusions by quoting the Vedas and the previous teacher's commentary. If one man claims to have knowledge, then other's may doubt him but if many men over a period of hundreds of thousands of years agree with his conclusions based on personal realization and Vedic reference, then this becomes very hard to doubt. While material sensual conclusions can be immediately disregarded as mental and intellectual speculation, Vedic conclusions are beyond the scope of speculation and simply remain to be confirmed.
According to Vedic information, there are 8,400,000 species of life of which 400,000 are human. Not all species can be found on this planet or in this planetary system. Each specie of life has a unique material body permeated by the consciousness of the transmigrating soul. Until the soul reaches the body of a human being, he automatically follows a path of life going from one specie to another, guided by instinct. Only when the soul comes to the human form of life does he have enough developed intelligence to actually learn to discriminate between matter and spirit. Following rules and regulations according to Vedic scripture is the process of raising one's consciousness within the body. Until a human can follow religious rules and regulations, he is not considered human, even though he may walk on two legs.
The universe has three planetary systems, the upper, middle and lower. There are unlimited universes. All the universes together make up just one quarter of the spiritual world. While the material universes have a finite time to their existence, the spiritual universe and their planets have no cessation to their existence. Within each universe, the length of life decreases from the higher to the lower planets. One hundred earth years is only a blink of an eye to the residents of Satyaloka, who live for millions of earth years. The challenge for every earth bound human is to cross beyond the material universe to the spiritual world, where life is eternal, full of bliss and knowledge.
Karma means action and every action within the material world produces some sort of reaction. The reactions to our karma can be felt sometimes immediately but most often they are the basis of our next life. So, every human has a particular set of bodily senses grouped around a particular mind and intelligence awarded by the laws of nature based on one's previous life's activities. Generally, a pious life results in either a higher human or a higher planetary birth. Impious deeds result in lower human birth or lower planetary birth. Heaven represents higher planetary birth and hell represents lower planetary birth. Within the earth planet, higher birth is characterized by good looks, fame, riches, and good intelligence. Lower birth results in poverty, ugliness and less intelligence. There is no telling what one's future might be; in other words, being born rich does not mean one will stay rich, etc. Vedic science teaches that both good and bad karma are within the realm of material life and for one who has been showered with the results of good karma, the gifts are temporary. In due course of time, good karma gets used up and one is forced back to a lower lifestyle, similar to a seesaw that is up temporarily and then must go back down again, only to rise once again and then fall. It is in everyone's self interest to get off the seesaw of material action and reaction.
Beyond the material worlds are both the spiritual atmosphere and the spiritual planetary systems. The most attractive and important Person within the spiritual worlds is God or Krishna. He is the center of life and the purpose of living. Anyone who attains life in the spiritual world has no desire to ever return to material life. Raising the consciousness to awareness of the spiritual worlds is the primary message of Vedic scripture. While other religions teach that God can only be attained after one's death, the Vedas clearly say that God can be directly appreciated both in this life and the next.
Human society, therefore, should live a life of controlled senses and God meditation. Undue sense gratification destroys the impetus for God realization. If the senses are not controlled, then there is no possibility of peace, both individually and collectively. Human life is actually meant for offering one's activity for the direct pleasure of God. Offering the fruits of one's labor for the pleasure of God ( yajna) is recommended in the Vedas for one's self purification. Without purified senses, there is no possibility of understanding God or the self.
When the senses are purified by acting constantly in the service of the Almighty Lord krishna, then one can have factual perception of the Lord on the transcendental plane of existence. At the time of direct perception, the individual soul is perfectly engaged in his original constitutional position as eternal loving servant of the Lord. His life is perfect and once passing away from his current body, he is assured of returning to the spiritual world in his original spiritual body, wherefrom he never returns to this material world of birth and death again.
Source: krsnaconsciousness.org
According to Vedic information, there are 8,400,000 species of life of which 400,000 are human. Not all species can be found on this planet or in this planetary system. Each specie of life has a unique material body permeated by the consciousness of the transmigrating soul. Until the soul reaches the body of a human being, he automatically follows a path of life going from one specie to another, guided by instinct. Only when the soul comes to the human form of life does he have enough developed intelligence to actually learn to discriminate between matter and spirit. Following rules and regulations according to Vedic scripture is the process of raising one's consciousness within the body. Until a human can follow religious rules and regulations, he is not considered human, even though he may walk on two legs.
The universe has three planetary systems, the upper, middle and lower. There are unlimited universes. All the universes together make up just one quarter of the spiritual world. While the material universes have a finite time to their existence, the spiritual universe and their planets have no cessation to their existence. Within each universe, the length of life decreases from the higher to the lower planets. One hundred earth years is only a blink of an eye to the residents of Satyaloka, who live for millions of earth years. The challenge for every earth bound human is to cross beyond the material universe to the spiritual world, where life is eternal, full of bliss and knowledge.
Karma means action and every action within the material world produces some sort of reaction. The reactions to our karma can be felt sometimes immediately but most often they are the basis of our next life. So, every human has a particular set of bodily senses grouped around a particular mind and intelligence awarded by the laws of nature based on one's previous life's activities. Generally, a pious life results in either a higher human or a higher planetary birth. Impious deeds result in lower human birth or lower planetary birth. Heaven represents higher planetary birth and hell represents lower planetary birth. Within the earth planet, higher birth is characterized by good looks, fame, riches, and good intelligence. Lower birth results in poverty, ugliness and less intelligence. There is no telling what one's future might be; in other words, being born rich does not mean one will stay rich, etc. Vedic science teaches that both good and bad karma are within the realm of material life and for one who has been showered with the results of good karma, the gifts are temporary. In due course of time, good karma gets used up and one is forced back to a lower lifestyle, similar to a seesaw that is up temporarily and then must go back down again, only to rise once again and then fall. It is in everyone's self interest to get off the seesaw of material action and reaction.
Beyond the material worlds are both the spiritual atmosphere and the spiritual planetary systems. The most attractive and important Person within the spiritual worlds is God or Krishna. He is the center of life and the purpose of living. Anyone who attains life in the spiritual world has no desire to ever return to material life. Raising the consciousness to awareness of the spiritual worlds is the primary message of Vedic scripture. While other religions teach that God can only be attained after one's death, the Vedas clearly say that God can be directly appreciated both in this life and the next.
Human society, therefore, should live a life of controlled senses and God meditation. Undue sense gratification destroys the impetus for God realization. If the senses are not controlled, then there is no possibility of peace, both individually and collectively. Human life is actually meant for offering one's activity for the direct pleasure of God. Offering the fruits of one's labor for the pleasure of God ( yajna) is recommended in the Vedas for one's self purification. Without purified senses, there is no possibility of understanding God or the self.
When the senses are purified by acting constantly in the service of the Almighty Lord krishna, then one can have factual perception of the Lord on the transcendental plane of existence. At the time of direct perception, the individual soul is perfectly engaged in his original constitutional position as eternal loving servant of the Lord. His life is perfect and once passing away from his current body, he is assured of returning to the spiritual world in his original spiritual body, wherefrom he never returns to this material world of birth and death again.
Source: krsnaconsciousness.org