A birth as a human being is an exceptional opportunity to achieve spiritual realization. One can be born on a superior planetary system among celestial beings, but given the many material advantages such a situation offers, it proves impossible to escape material bondage. Even on this earth, those who live in opulence generally do not bother to adopt Krishna consciousness. An intelligent person who truly desires to be freed from the bonds of material life must seek the company of pure beings, such as authentic spiritual masters, or true servants of Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Through their contact, he will gradually be able to free himself from all material attraction to money and women. This attraction constitutes the fundamental principle of material attachment.
This is why Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Golden Avatar, recommended that all those who seriously desired to return to the spiritual world renounce these two aspects of material life, so as to become worthy of entering the kingdom of Godhead.
Money and women, however, can be entirely devoted to the service of the Lord, and one who knows how to do this can be freed from bondage to materiality. One can experience the glorification of the Supreme Personality of Godhead only in the company of holy beings. Even a short time spent in contact with a pure being can allow us to return to God.
Let us wake up, for we are asleep.
In truth, our life force and our actions are dormant. As long as the incarnate living being has not reached the spiritual level, the various parts of his body, his thoughts, and the other functions of his organism are considered asleep. If a person has not reached the spiritual level, everything he accomplishes is equivalent to the activities of a dead person or a ghost. This is why, considering the attitude of certain wicked spiritual guides, Jesus said of them: “They are corpses of whom there is nothing to mark them.”
Similarly, the original holy scriptures, also called “The True Gospel,” state: “Wake up, wake up. You have the good fortune, the privilege, to have human form; you must now attain spiritual realization.”
We must rediscover our true spiritual identity and know that we are, in truth, a spiritual entity, a spiritual soul. The spiritual awakening of the senses and mind is due to the action of the internal power of the Lord, which can be attained only by the causeless mercy of God. It is by the grace of this energy that one can attain spiritual enlightenment. This acts upon the living entity who surrenders completely to the Lord and accepts his position as an eternal servant. By placing oneself at the disposal of the Supreme Lord, by being ready to do His will, He is then gradually revealed to us by spiritual energy. Without this assistance of spiritual energy, it is impossible to glorify the Lord through prayers. When the individual being distinct from God is truly revived by spiritual energy, all his senses become purified, and he devotes himself exclusively to the service of the Lord. At this stage, his hands, legs, ears, tongue, mind, genitals, in short, his entire body, actively participate in the service he offers to the Lord. Thus enlightened, the holy being no longer has any material activities, nor does he have the slightest desire to engage in such activities.