Sightseeing in Sydney

We are traveling now via automobile to a home preaching program somewhere in the Sydney metropolitan area. Along the way we just passed through downtown Sydney where we saw a sightseeing bus with an observation deck on top full of gaping gawking tourists. The sign on the side of the bus advertised 30 stops for only $35. As I looked out the car window at downtown Sydney I was thinking, "What is there here that is so much worth seeing?" Someone may accuse me of being overly negative. But I seriously wonder if there is anything here in this material world which is worth traveling a great distance to go see. Is there anything here that can free us from the clutches of birth, death, old age, and disease? If there were, such a thing would truly be worth seeing. But we do not such a thing here even all the way up to the topmost planet in the universe, Brahmaloka.

But then my mind jumps to the beautiful transcendental forms of Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha here at our North Sydney ISKCON temple. They are something that is truly worth seeing, even if one has to travel half way around the world to see them. Why is that? If we gaze upon the transcendental form of the deities of Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha with eyes of love, we do in fact become blessed with immortality. I wonder why the sightseeing bus does not stop by the temple?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha--the Perfection of Sightseeing ISKCON Temple, North Sydney, Australia

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: Where in the Human Body is the Atma Situated?

Srila Gurudeva, please help me understand how the atma is situated in the human body.

Neel

Answer: In the Physical Heart

Just as the driver sits in the driver's seat for driving the car, the atma, the eternal individual self, sits within the physical heart of the body from where he engages the body in the field of activities. And just as when a car becomes old and useless the driver trades it in according to his budget for a new one, when the material body becomes old and useless, according to his karmic budget the atma is awarded another material body in which to continue his sojourn within this material existence. In this way the body changes again and again, but the atma remains eternally the same.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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