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everything business, business—finished. "Now you have to accept another body. You forget about all these
things." This is going on. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (Bg. 8.19 – purport).
So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is the greatest benefactory movement to the human society because it
is giving information to the human society that "You make your life... You have got this nice human form of
body. Make this life perfect by understanding Kṛṣṇa." This is the opportunity. You may think of independent of
Kṛṣṇa. You are not independent of Kṛṣṇa. You are under the rules and regulation of Kṛṣṇa, because we are
under the rules and regulation of material nature. But what is this material nature? Material nature is agent of
Kṛṣṇa. Mama māyā. Kṛṣṇa says, mama māyā duratyayā. You cannot surmount the stringent laws of material
ways. And this māyā is Kṛṣṇa's māyā. Therefore the conclusion is given by Kṛṣṇa, mām eva ye prapadyante
māyām etāṁ taranti te [Bg. 7.14]. If you want to get out of the māyā's activities, prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ
karmāṇi [Bg. 3.27], then you have to take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. There is no way out. This is a scientific
movement. Anyone, intelligent person, any thoughtful person, he must take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Otherwise
he is doomed. ( Lecture on BG 7.1 -- Hong Kong, January 25, 1975)
Camus’ third attitude for living the absurd life is live passionately without inhibitions of prudish morality. If
Camus read the Bhagavad-gita he could have understood that the passionate life of material sense enjoyment
leads to misery. Lord Krishna says: That happiness which is derived from contact of the senses with their
objects and which appears like nectar at first but poison at the end is said to be of the nature of passion. (Bg
18.38)
Because Camus was an atheist he avoided very cleaverly the only viable course of action to find meaning and
purpose in life: i.e., Krishna Consciousness. By Krishna Consciousness one transcends the chaos and
meaninglessness of material life.
Materialistic writers misunderstand the real problems of life
By associating with materialistic people a person embraces the false concept that his real identity is the body.
This corrupts his thinking, feeling and willing powers orienting them to desiring bodily pleasures and
completely ignoring his soul and its entrapment. All his thoughts, desires and actions become focused on
attaining material sense gratification by piety through performance of rituals or impiety by sinful activities.
The goal of both endeavors is to attain material benefits for sensual pleasures.
The influence of the external energy entices the living entity who becomes overwhelmed by illusion. Lord
Krishna does not want the living entity to be influenced by illusion. Yet, He does not interfere with the action
of the illusory energy because such influence is necessary for the reformation of the conditioned soul.
Repeated failures in life makes one introspective. “Why am I suffering? I want to be happy. Yet, I encounter
some happiness and much misery. Why is this happening to me?”
These existential questions arise in the mind of a person who suffers one misery after another with
intermittent periods of material happiness. The mixed bag of happiness and distress is bewildering. The
exercise of bad judgement, forgetfulness of God and engagement in sinful activities is a sign of punishment by
the illusory energy (maya) personified by the goddess Durga, who is the servant of Lord Krishna. She has the
thankless task of keeping the errant soul in a state of illusion while the Lord remains aloof like an affectionate
father who does not like to see his child punished. He may, however, place his disobedient child under the
care of a strict disciplinarian to rectify the child’s lack of self-control and good discretion.
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