The bodies of dense and ethereal matter, composed of the three modes of influence of the material nature (virtue, passion, ignorance), are attached to you (the incarnate soul), but they are in fact an illusion, because they appear only today, having no original or ultimate existence. How is it possible, therefore, that the different stages of the body, namely birth, growth, reproduction, maintenance, decrease and death, can have a relationship with your eternal self?

These phases concern only the material body, which did not exist before and will ultimately not exist. The body exists only at the present moment.

I will now speak to you about these regulatory principles of Vedic knowledge [of the Vedas, the original scriptures], detachment, self-realization, faith, and devotional service. I personally approve of this knowledge through which one sees the combination of eleven, nine, five and three elements in all living entities, and finally one element in these twenty-eight. When one no longer sees the twenty-eight separate material elements, which come from a single cause, but rather the cause itself, the Supreme Person, then his direct experience is called self-realization.

The beginning, termination and maintenance are the stages of material causality. The one who systematically accompanies all these material phases from one creation to another and remains alone when all material phases are annihilated is the Eternal Person. From the four types of evidence, Vedic knowledge, direct experience, traditional wisdom and logical induction, one can understand the temporary and non-substantial situation of the material world, thanks to which one detaches oneself from the duality of this world. An intelligent person must see that all material activity is subject to constant transformation and that even on the planet of Lord Brahma there is also misfortune. Indeed, a wise man can understand that just as everything he has seen is temporary, so all things in the universe have a beginning and an end. Now, I will again explain the supreme process to achieve a loving service to Me.

A firm faith in the stories of My entertainments, constantly singing My glories, steadfast attachment to the ceremonial worship of My Person, praise through beautiful hymns, great respect for My devotional service, Offering myself obedience with the whole body, performing first-class worship on the part of My faithful devotees, the consciousness of My Person realized by all living entities, the offering of ordinary bodily activities in My devotional service, the use of words to describe My qualities, to offer My being, the rejection of all material desires, to abandon wealth for My devotional service, to renounce material gratification and happiness, and to carry out all desirable activities such as charity, sacrifice, singing, vows and austerities in order to reach Me, these are true religious principles through which human beings who have actually surrendered to Me, automatically develop out of love for Me. What other purpose or objective could remain for My devotee?

When one’s peaceful consciousness, strengthened by virtue, is fixed on the Supreme Person, one reaches spirituality, knowledge, detachment and opulence. When consciousness is fixed on the material body, the house and other similar objects of sensory satisfaction, one spends one’s life chasing material objects using the senses. The consciousness, thus powerfully affected by passion, is devoted to impermanent things, and in this way irreligion, ignorance, attachment and misery arise.