Men are afraid of Yamaraja because he punishes miscreants of the material world. But the devotees of the Lord have nothing to fear about him. To devotees, he is a cordial friend but to non-devotees, he is fear personified.
Yamaraja was cursed by Manduka Muni to be degraded as a shudra and therefore Vidura was an incarnation of Yamaraja. As an eternal servitor of the Lord, he displayed his devotion very ardently and lived a pious man. A materialistic man like Dhritarashtra also received salvation through his instructions.
In the end, he was received by the denizens of Pitrloka and posted to his original position. The demigods are also associates of the Lord without personal touch, whereas direct associates are in constant personal touch with Him. The Lord and His personal associates get incarnated in many universes without any end. The Lord remembers them all, whereas the associates forget due to their being very minute parts and parcels of the Lord; they forget such incidents due to being infinitesimal.
As spiritualists, it is important to know the state of consciousness of great personalities as described in the Vedic literatures, because spiritual life is all about culturing our consciousness. We can also mould our consciousness, as we are not interested in molding our bodies as materialists are.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna describes how yoga is to be practised. Prabhupada describes — if we open our eyes fully when doing meditation, the material world will distract us, if we close our eyes fully we will go to sleep. So a yogi is said to keep his eyes partially open. Krishna develops these ideas in the Bhagavad Gita.
A yogi’s position has been highlighted and Krishna has said —tapasvibhyo dhiko yogi — a yogi is better than a tapasvi. A tapasvi does a lot of tapasya, but his mind is not like that of a yogi, focused on Krishna. Jnanibhyo pi mato dhikah — greater than a jnani, karmibhyas cadhiko yogi — and definitely better than a karmi. Krishna, having explained how a yogi is better than a tapasvi, jnani and karmi, recommends tasmad. Therefore yogi bhavarjuna — in all circumstances be a yogi. And he says the yogi who thinks of him, abides in him and has full faith in him will be considered as the foremost yogi by him and will understand the absolute truth.
If you have to practice yoga, it is with the attachment of Krishna and under the shelter of Krishna. That is why anasuyave — as Krishna says, “Those who are envious of me, they avoid.” Just compare our situation. Some material qualities like beauty and attraction. We run towards them, just like insects are charmed by fire and go mad.
These are opportunities for us to get a glimpse of the consciousness of very special personalities who came to this material world and practiced the highest states of spiritual consciousness. In the material world, people are absorbed in IPL cricket matches, businesses — so many different things. The consciousness of those in the spiritual world is — ananda cinmaya rasa pratibhavitabhis — so it is referring to bhakti rasas, a description of the state of consciousness of the associates of the Lord in the spiritual world.
Prabhupada says, “When you see Krishna embracing a cow or a calf in the spiritual world, don’t think it is an ordinary cow or a calf. It is a very exalted soul.” Krishna is absorbed in embracing those who are great devotees in different rasas. He asks what importance he wanted to convey when he coined the term ‘Krishna consciousness’ in English. He says, Rupa Goswami uses the word — krsna bhakti rasa bhavita matih, bhavita means, charmed, deeply absorbed in — matih — state of mind. So it is a very exalted state of consciousness that Srila Prabhupada had in mind.
Rupa Goswami had described that it was the state of consciousness which the residents of the spiritual world had, as described by Lord Brahma. Actually we are all ordinary people, but what we are aiming for is something extraordinary. That is what Krishna consciousness is all about.
The path of spirituality can be very confusing.
There are Vedic literatures like Bhagavatam, Devi Bhagavatam, and Shiva Purana. We can become thoroughly confused and there are rishis and teachers and all of them have differing opinions. There is the spiritualist who will say that his religion is about happiness, not God. So they talk about religion without God. How do we get the right guidance?
As Prabhupada has mentioned here, right guidance is very important. That is why it is said — dharmasya tattvam nihitam guhayam, dharmasya tattvam — the truth about spirituality is that it’s residing in the the heart of a self-realised soul.
Srila Prabhupada has institutionalised that in a contemporary society, the same knowledge with the same potency can continue to influence ordinary people like us and we can aspire to hope for the very elevated state of consciousness that these great personalities have displayed.