Krishna explains the difference between the material and spiritual worlds to Arjuna. The material world is temporary, full of ignorance and misery, and is the reflection of the spiritual world, which is eternal, full of knowledge and bliss. In the material world, our pure love for Krishna becomes perverted into lust for sense gratification. Krishna tells Arjuna that one should live detached from material possessions and relationships, which are all impermanent, and focus on returning to the spiritual world by taking shelter of Krishna.

1. STANDARD
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CHAPTER 15
THE SPIRITUAL WORLD
Book your flightticket to Vrindavan, the blissful home of
Krishna
Lesson-01
Krishna explains in this chapter to Arjuna about the
material and the spiritual worlds. He also explains to him
the ideal way of living in this world so that at the end of
his life, once can go back to the spiritual world
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THIS MATERIAL
WORLD AND THE SPIRITUAL WORLD?
Krishna explains that this material world is like a banyan
tree whose roots are upwards and branchesare
downwards. This means that this material world is a
reflection of the real tree of the spiritual world. In
reflection, we see everything to be opposite. Thus in the
spiritual world, all of us had desire to serve Krishna
which is called pure love. But the reflection of that pure
love in material world is that we want to serve our own
senses, which means lust. All the relationshipsin spiritual

2. world are pure and their perverted reflection is seen in
material world as frustrated relationships. The spiritual
world is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. The
material world being the reflection is exactly opposite. It
is temporary, full of ignorance and full of miseries.
Whatever happiness we find here is just a perverted
reflection of real happiness found in spiritual world.
Materialists find no real happiness or pleasure in this
world.
The man who wanted to tastesugarcane
A man once told his friend that sugar-cane tastes nice and
sweet when you chew it up. The friend did not know
what sugar-cane was, and so he asked the man. He was
told that it was "just like a bamboo log." The foolish
friend then began to chew different kinds of bamboo
sticks, but he could never taste the sweetness.
MORAL: Similarly, worldlypeopleare tryingto find
happiness and pleasureby enjoyingthe material body,
but they findno real happiness or pleasure,only
pervertedhappiness.
SO HOW SHOULD I LIVE IN THIS WORLD?
Learn from the child

3. A child was building a sandcastle. Similarly, a man
working in office endeavors so hard to build his own
empire consisting of his family, his career, his business,
and bank balance.
The child knows well that when the waves will come
what will happen and he is not worried. But when the
wave of time comes, the man grows anxious.
The child sees the wave coming and destroying his castle.
He silently watches and smiles. Then he holdsthe hand of
his father and goes home with him.The man sees the
waves coming and with all his might he wants to stop the
waves. The waves nevertheless destroy everything. The
man is frustrated and he shouts at the ocean, “The castle is
mine.” Ocean does not respond and the man who lacks
the simplicity of the child forgets to hold the hand of his
father and go back home and obstinatelysuffers at the
desert like shore.
MORAL: Nothingin thisworld, no matter how big, is
permanent. Thereforewe should not be disturbedwhen
reversals come. By detachment, we can remainsteadyand
take shelter of Krishna.Then all the reversalswill just
become a medium, which will help us to hold the hand of
Krishnaand go back to Godhead.