Advanced Consciousness Is Given So We Can Choose Kṛṣṇa
Human life comes with a higher power of awareness and responsibility. Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches that advanced consciousness is given so the living being can understand the soul, the Supersoul, and the real problem of material existence. This gift is not meant for polished animal life or endless artificial comfort, but for choosing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When consciousness is used properly, it lifts the soul toward compassion, self-realization, and freedom from material misery.
Human Life Gives the Chance to Choose
The human form comes after a long evolutionary journey through many species. With advanced consciousness, the living being can ask why birth, death, old age, and disease exist, and how to return to the original spiritual condition. Kṛṣṇa does not force the choice; He gives the intelligence and freedom to decide which way to go. This makes human life precious, because the same consciousness can lead upward or downward.
- First of all aquatics, then plants and trees, then insect, then birds, then beasts, then human being. Now, in the human being form, because by gradual process of evolution we have got advance consciousness, the subject matter is given to us.
- In this body, our consciousness being advanced, if we try, we can understand what is the problem of life, why we have accepted birth, death, old age and disease, how to get out of it, how to revive our original nature of body and again become eternal.
- Krsna does not touch your independence. Therefore He has given you advanced consciousness in human form of life, so that you now decide which way you shall go.
- Nature's law is very, very strict. This life it is given, a chance. Nature gives a chance. Now you get this human form of life, advanced consciousness. Now you make further improvement. That is wanted.
Advanced Consciousness Must Not Be Misused
Developed awareness can become degraded when it is used for sense gratification instead of self-realization. Even one who is learned or advanced may fall if attraction and lust cover the mind. Śrīla Prabhupāda shows that attachment, especially household and sexual attachment, can cover the whole consciousness and pull the living being downward. Advanced consciousness must therefore be protected by discipline and spiritual purpose.
- After human being, if we do not work properly with our advanced consciousness, then we go down again in the hellish planet that are down this universe. And if we act piously, then you go to the upper planetary system.
- Although Kasyapa Muni was a learned scholar and was advanced in spiritual consciousness, he nonetheless fell a victim to the inducement of his beautiful wife.
- King Puranjana was a great soul, highly intellectual and possessed of advanced consciousness, but due to his being too much addicted to women, his whole consciousness was covered.
- Puranjana, although advanced in consciousness, lay down on a very soft bed with his wife. This indicates that he indulged too much in sex.
Spiritual Progress Requires Simplicity and Regulation
Advanced consciousness flourishes when life is simplified and regulated. Eating, sleeping, sex life, and fear are bodily necessities, but they must be reduced so the full duration of life can be used for spiritual progress. Cow protection, sufficient grains and milk, and peaceful living support a civilization meant for self-realization. Such a life does not reject the body; it uses bodily maintenance in the service of higher consciousness.
- Eating, sleeping, sex life and fear are the four bodily necessities but to utilize the full duration of life a person desiring to advance in spiritual consciousness must reduce these activities. That will give him an opportunity to fully use his lifetime.
- Every state and every home must endeavor to advance the cause of 2) God consciousness for self-realization and cow protection for getting sufficient milk and the best food to continue a perfect civilization.
- Krsna consciousness movement is trying to save people from the hog civilization or dog civilization to human civilization. Human civilization means plain living and advancing in spiritual consciousness, not to increase unnecessarily artificial way of life.
- The cow is very, very important animal. If you want to advance your spiritual consciousness, then you must have sufficient milk and sufficient grains. That is civilization. Therefore it is the duty of the vaisyas to produce food grain.
Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Makes Awareness Compassionate
When consciousness is spiritually advanced, it naturally becomes sympathetic to all living beings. A person who sees the soul no longer acts cruelly or envies others, because their suffering becomes visible. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that advanced spiritual consciousness leads one to think of the suffering of people in general. This compassion is not sentiment; it comes from seeing every living entity in relation to Kṛṣṇa.
- God has given advanced consciousness to the human being. Therefore he can feel the suffering and happiness of other living beings. The human being bereft of his conscience, however, is prone to cause suffering for other living beings.
- A maha-bhagavata, being learned and advanced in spiritual consciousness, sees no difference between a tiger, an elephant or a learned scholar.
- Those who are advanced in transcendental consciousness, or Krsna consciousness, are never envious, neither of the soul nor of the activities of the soul under the influence of material nature.
- When a person is advanced in spiritual consciousness or Krsna consciousness, he naturally becomes very sympathetic toward all living entities suffering in the material world. Naturally such an advanced person thinks of the suffering of people in general.
Real Advancement Goes Beyond Bodily Life
The purpose of advanced consciousness is not simply to become more skilled at material enjoyment. The human being can understand that consciousness comes from the soul and that the Supersoul is above the individual soul. When this realization develops, the bodily conception of life begins to vanish. Real advancement means moving toward spiritual identity, not refining the same animal propensities with better tools.
- If we go still further, we can understand, "I am consciousness." And one who is further advanced can understand that the source of consciousness is the soul and, above all, the Supersoul.
- Such natural instincts (for gross selfishness) of a woman or a man are manifested only in the bodily conception of life. When either a man or a woman is advanced in spiritual consciousness, the bodily conception of life practically vanishes.
- The human being is endowed with a higher, advanced stage of consciousness for getting relief from the existence of material miseries, but due to his ignorance he thinks that his higher consciousness is meant for advancing in the material comforts of life.
- We have got this nice body, human form of life, with an advanced consciousness. Just merge it into Krsna consciousness and be happy. This is the sum and substance of this movement.
Conclusion
Advanced consciousness is a gift meant for choosing Kṛṣṇa, not for decorating material life. The human being can understand the soul, the Supersoul, the suffering of other living beings, and the need to escape birth, death, old age, and disease. Śrīla Prabhupāda directs this awareness toward restraint, simplicity, compassion, and Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When used properly, advanced consciousness becomes the doorway from animal life to spiritual freedom.
Dive Deeper into Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vani
Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category Advanced Consciousness. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience his teachings in their direct, verbatim form.