Prabhupada, Honolulu, May 20, 1976: …I think the Christian doctrine, that in this life either you go to hell or go to heaven. Is it not?
Devotee: Yes.
Prabhupada: That is nice. The same thing. This human form of life is a chance. Actually, in this material world we are all suffering. Duhkhalayam asasvatam [Bg. 8.15]. You cannot make it a happy place. That is not possible. Krishna says, who has created this material world, He says, duhkhalayam asasvatam [Bg. 8.15]. Duhkha means unhappiness; alayam means place.
Duhkhalayam asasvatam. That is also temporary. Duhkhalayam asasvatam, napnuvanti mahatmanam samsiddhim paramam gatah [Bg. 8.15]. So this is place of duhkhalayam. Any commonsense man can understand that Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita… You may challenge, “Where is the unhappiness? We are very happy.” Madmen. Krishna points out, “No, it is not place of happiness.” Why it is not place of happiness?
Now, janma-mrtyu-jara vyadhi-duhkha-dosanudarsanam. Why don’t you see the real unhappiness? This is real duhkha, or unhappiness. What is that? Janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi. You have to die. You have to take birth within the womb with so much risk that even your mother can kill you.
Is it very happiness? At the present moment the mother… When the child sleeps very peacefully, that “I am on the lap of my mother,” now the time has come when the mother is killing the child. So is it very happiness place? That you cannot trust even your mother, what to speak of others.
The time has come, degraded, that… Naturally a child, he thinks, “I am safe now with my mother.” But the Kali-yuga is so cruel that even with mother you are not safe. And still you say it is a place of happiness? This is called illusion. It is not place.
So this is going on. Not only in the human form of life, in the animal form of life, in trees and so on, so on, it is going on. Eight million, four hundred… So this is a chance given, human form of life. Just like after imprisonment you are again given little freedom.
You cannot be completely free; however, you may declare that “I belong to free nation…” Free nation means you are free, certainly, but not absolutely free. You are dependent on the state laws. Similarly, nobody can be free. That is not possible.
prakrteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvasah ahankara-vimudhatma kartaham iti manyate [Bg. 3.27]
These rascals, they are thinking, “I am free.” No. Nobody is free. But because we are not free, that does not mean there is no freedom. There is freedom. That is not in this world. That is in the spiritual world. Full Lecture
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