In our times of trouble, we may doubt, “Does Krishna really exist?” Gita wisdom turns this doubt on the head by prompting the doubt, “Does the world around me with all its troubles really exist?”
To the response, “The world obviously exists because it tugs and pulls at me, making real demands and bringing real consequences,” Gita wisdom counters: is this level of reality much higher than the reality of dreams? While we are dreaming, doesn’t the dreaming reality also make demands and bring consequences? Just as the worries of the dream disappear when we wake up physically, the worries of the world disappear when we wake up spiritually.
The waking reality is a bit higher than the dreaming reality because we return to the same waking reality each day when we wake up, unlike the dreaming reality, which is different and disconnected each night. Still, the waking reality is not the highest reality. When we go to our final sleep at the end of our life, we won’t return to the same waking reality ever again.
The highest reality is the spiritual reality, wherein we as souls reciprocate eternal love with Krishna. The purpose of life is to reach that reality by purifying and raising our consciousness. To keep us focused on this purpose, the Bhagavad-gita (2.16) urges us to see the realm of matter as unreal due to its temporality and the realm of spirit as real due to its eternality.
When amidst our real troubles we take real shelter of Krishna, his real love will solace, encourage and invigorate us. Then we will realize for ourselves that Krishna is realer than what we normally call as reality. Even when the whole real world falls apart, He will always be really there with us and for us.
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02, Text 16
“Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent [the material body] there is no endurance and of the eternal [the soul] there is no change. This they have concluded by studying the nature of both.”
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