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This is the second in a series of essays called "Everything You Know is Wrong"
We have already discussed the fact that we are not this body -- see 
Everything You Know is Wrong (About Your Body).
 We are all engaged in occupational duties of different types according 
to our bodies and minds, and our relation to nature. Bodily or mental 
duties change, because we change our bodies. I am now a human being, and
 next time, if I become some animal, or a demigod, my occupational duty 
changes. If the body is born in India, one is feeling that "It is my 
duty to serve my country." Similarly, an Englishman is thinking to serve
 his country. The mind also changes according to body, or according to 
mind the body becomes engaged in a particular duty. We are contaminated 
by so many qualities of nature, and we are making our concoction, 
manufacturing our duty. A drunkard, because he has mixed with the 
quality of drunkards, he thinks, "Drinking is my duty." When you mix 
with the teabaggers, then you become like the teabaggers: "Oh, it is my 
duty to protest against the government." Otherwise you cannot stay in 
the society of teabaggers. But these occupational duties are not para. 
Para means transcendental, supreme.
After Krishna left the planet, the question was 
dharmaḥ kaṁ śaraṇaṁ gataḥ.
 "After departure of Krishna from this planet to His abode, under whom 
was the real occupational duty entrusted?" Krishna gave the answer in 
Bhagavad-gītā (18.66) 
sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja:
 "This is your real occupation. You have got some bodily occupation, 
some mental occupation, some intellectual occupation, but you have to 
give up all these things. Simply surrender unto Me. This is your real 
occupation." Krishna descends to teach us this dharma, or occupational 
duty. He has explained karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, dhyāna-yoga. These are 
all occupational duties of the body, of the mind, of intelligence. But 
real occupation is the soul's surrender to Krishna, because the soul is 
eternal. The body and mind are not eternal.
The bodies and minds of materialistic nondevotees seem to display the
 symptoms of life, but this appearance is deceptive. Actually, the 
conditioned soul has little control over his own bodily existence. 
Against his will, he has to excrete waste, get sick from time to time, 
and eventually age and die. And in his mind he unwillingly suffers 
anger, hankering and lamentation. Lord Krishna describes this situation 
as
 yantrārūdhāni māyayā (Bhagavad-gītā 18.61), riding 
helplessly as a passenger in a mechanical vehicle. The soul undoubtedly 
is alive, and irrevocably so, but in his ignorance that inner life is 
covered and forgotten. In its place, the automation of the external mind
 and body carries out the dictates of the modes of nature, which force 
one to act in a way altogether irrelevant to the dormant needs of the 
soul. Calling out to the forgetful prisoners of illusion, the 
Śvetāśvatara Upanisad (2.5) urges, "All you sons of immortality, hear, 
you who once resided in the divine kingdom!"
So, on the one hand, what is normally viewed as living -- the 
material body -- is in actuality a dead machine being manipulated by the
 modes of nature. And on the other hand, what the materialist 
condescendingly views as inert matter meant for exploitation is in its 
unknown essence connected with a living intelligence vastly more potent 
than his own. The Vedic civilization recognizes the intelligence behind 
nature as belonging to demigods who preside over the various elements, 
and ultimately to the Supreme Lord Himself. Matter, after all, cannot 
act coherently without the impulse and guidance of a living force. As 
Krishna states in Bhagavad-gītā (9.10),
"This material nature, which is one of My energies, is 
working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, producing all moving and 
nonmoving beings. Under its rule this manifestation is created and 
annihilated again and again."
There are many thoughtful writers and creative philosophers, but despite
 all their learning, if they cannot approach the Supreme Personality of 
Godhead, they are simply useless mental speculators. There are many 
sharply intelligent people in this material world, and they discover so 
many things for sense gratification. They also analytically study all 
the material elements, but despite their expert knowledge and expert 
scientific analysis of the whole cosmic manifestation, their endeavors 
are useless because they cannot understand the Supreme Personality of 
Godhead.
Polluted intelligence has been compared to a prostitute. One who has 
not purified his intelligence is said to be controlled by that 
prostitute. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (2.41), those who are actually 
serious are conducted by one kind of intelligence, namely, intelligence 
in Krishna consciousness. One who is not fixed in proper intelligence 
discovers many modes of life. Thus involved in material activities, he 
is exposed to the different modes of material nature and subjected to 
varieties of so-called happiness and distress. If a man becomes the 
husband of a prostitute, he cannot be happy, and similarly one who 
follows the dictations of material intelligence and material 
consciousness will never be happy.
One must judiciously understand the activities of material nature. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (3.27) 
"The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the 
three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of 
activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature."
It is like a bull tethered by a nose ring. The bull always thinks he's 
in control, but he's being pulled by the nose this way and that. The 
bull is being pulled in one direction, and the bull thinks "Let me go 
this way." When the bull is pulled in the other direction, then the bull
 thinks, "Let me go that way."
Although one follows the dictations of material nature, he happily 
thinks himself the master or husband of material nature. Scientists, for
 example, try to be the masters of material nature, life after life, not
 caring to understand the Supreme Person, under whose direction 
everything within this material world is moving. Trying to be the 
masters of material nature, they are imitation gods who declare to the 
public that scientific advancement will one day be able to avoid the 
so-called control of God. In fact, however, the living being, unable to 
control the rulings of God, is forced to associate with the prostitute 
of polluted intelligence and accept various material bodies. As stated 
in Bhagavad-gītā (13.22) 
"The living entity in material nature thus follows the 
ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his 
association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil 
amongst various species."
If one fully engages in temporary fruitive activities and does not solve this real problem, what profit will he gain?