Invest In Your Eternal Bank Account

By: Victor Epand
Imagine a share advertisement declaring, "A 100% guarantee: you will lose every single penny invested here!" And if you found millions of people investing all their life's savings in such a share, wouldn't you lament their misfortune and imprudence? But isn't this what almost all of us are doing? We are born with a death sentence written on our bodies.

Despite all scientific advancement, the death rate was, is and will always be 100%; everyone who is born has to die without exception. And yet almost everyone spends his entire life pandering to the demands of the body and its extensions. Sometimes people imagine that death is a very peaceful end to all our life's struggles. But let's consider: here in this life, when we lose a small amount of our hard-earned money, we feel so distressed. Then at death, when we lose everything that we have given our sweat, blood, heart and life to obtain, how much more will be our suffering?
The Garuda Purana, an ancient Vedic scripture, compares the agony of death to the pain of 40,000 simultaneous scorpion bites.

But hold on - there's also good news. Each of us has the power to save ourselves from this enormous suffering. We are all eternal souls, beloved children of God, temporarily situated in material bodies. Our bodies have to die but we don't have to suffer at death. The pain at death is wholly due to the agony of losing all that is very dear to our hearts. If during our lifetime, we have made God our dearmost object, then death will not separate, but unite us, with our object of love.

Love for God is natural for us but is currently dormant in our hearts. This sleeping love can be most easily awakened by the divine sound of the holy names of God. The state of conditioned life in the material world is just like a man lying unconscious, having been bitten by a snake. This is because both such unconscious states can be ended by the sound of a mantra." When a man is snake-bitten he does not die immediately, but first becomes unconscious and remains in a comatose condition. Anyone who is in the material world is also sleeping, as he is ignorant of his actual self or his actual duty and his relationship with God

So materialistic life means that one is bitten by the snake of maya, illusion, and thus, without any Krishna consciousness, he is almost dead. Now, the so-called dead man bitten by a snake can be brought back again to life by the chanting of some mantra. There are expert chanters of these mantras who can perform this feat. Similarly, one can be brought back into Krishna consciousness from the deadly unconscious state of material life by hearing of the holy names of the Lord.

Therefore every moment utilized in chanting the names of God is like an investment in our eternal bank account, which we can draw on in our future lives. An intelligent executive always saves to prepare for his future retirements, however pressing the present demands for money are. Similarly a wise person invests time in serving God to prepare for his inevitable death and afterlife, no matter how busy he is.

Srila Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), gave a prominent Mumbai businessman precious insights into transcendental business, "In the ledger of your life, all the time you have spent on your body, is loss and all the time you have spent for Krishna (God) is profit." Therefore just as a materially shrewd businessman carefully counts every note he earns, let us carefully count every name of God we chant. This is the process of Bhakti-yoga, it is so simple, pure and easy that a child can practice without difficulty. One can begin by simply chanting Holy Names of God.

Krishna is very merciful to those who engage in His service, by chanting His divine names, and He helps in various ways that devotee who is fully surrendered to Him so he can understand Him as He is. The Lord gives such a devotee sufficient intelligence so that ultimately the devotee can attain Him in His spiritual kingdom. Therefore any amount of energy we expend in Krishna consciousness or service to the Lord remains our eternal benefit or credit that will carry us to next destination after death.