Hare Krsna Prabhus,
I was privately with Venu Gopal prabhu the day before he left his body and he said to me, “there’s no way I want to stop off at the heavenly planets… I want to go straight back to Krsnaloka”. No sightseeing *‘tourists’ as Srila Prabhupada says in this class. Praying that we all have that strength.
Vāsudeva-parāyaṇāḥ
Yfs, Bal.
Bhagavad-gītā 2.23–24
London, Aug. 27, 1973
Audio for this lecture: https://prabhupadavani.org/transcriptions/730827bglon/
Excerpt:
“…So sarva-gataḥ. Sarva-gataḥ means a soul is free to go anywhere. Anywhere. Full freedom, as he wants. That is also explained in the Bhagavad-gītā:
yānti deva-vratā devān
pitṝn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ
bhūtejyā yānti bhūtāni
mad-yājino ‘pi yānti mām
[Bg. 9.25]
As you like. It is up to you. Make your selection where you want to be. You have, somehow or other, you have come here. That’s all right. But Kṛṣṇa gives you chance to be elevated to any planetary system you like. Ultimately, if you want to go back to home, back to Godhead, that is also given, everything. Mad-yājino ‘pi yānti mām. So if you want to go to the moon planet, there is no need of the sputnik. There is a process so that after this body you become elevated to the moon planet. Why should you make research for, and become futile research, going to the moon? You just prepare yourself. There are different processes. If you want to go to the moon planet, you can go. If you want to go to the heavenly planet, you can go. Similarly, if you want to go to the planet where Kṛṣṇa is, you can go.
So sane man, intelligent man, should consider that “If I have to prepare myself for going, for being elevated to the higher planetary system, but we have to come back again, kṣīṇe puṇye punar martya-loka, why not endeavor for going back to Kṛṣṇaloka?” That is intelligence. But there are big, big yogīs, they elevate themselves to the higher planetary system. They… Before going to the spiritual world, they want to see how the higher planetary system are working. Just like the visitors, *tourists, they are going somewhere, and drop, by journey, somewhere to see.
But you should not make such ambition. You should endeavour directly going back to home, back to Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. That should be your endeavour. Yes. Mad-yājino ‘pi yānti mam [Bg. 9.25].
And the process is very simple. Yājinaḥ, just worshiping Kṛṣṇa, as we have introduced = this maṅgala-ārātrika, this offering food, worshiping. Mad-yājinaḥ. Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto mad-yājī Smāṁ namaskuru [Bg. 18.65]. Yājī. Yajana means worship.
So what is the difficulty? If, by this simple process, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti [Bg. 4.9], you can go back to Kṛṣṇa, why we shall try for going to the heavenly planet, moon planet, this planet, where again we have to come from? Kṣīṇe puṇye punar martya-lokam. This is intelligence.
Thank you very much.” [end]
