Student: Many people are worried about nuclear war.They think it may come very soon.

Śrīdhar Mahārāj: That is a point on a line, a line on a plane, a plane in a solid.So many times wars are coming and going; so many times the sun, the earth, and the solar systems disappear and again spring up.We are in the midst of such thought in eternity. This nuclear war is a tiny point—what of that?Individuals are dying at every moment. The earth will die; the whole human section will disappear. Let it be.

We must try to live in eternity, not any particular span of time or space. We must prepare ourselves for our eternal benefit, not for any temporary remedy. The sun, the moon, and all the planets appear and vanish: they die, and then again, they are created. Within such an eternity we have to live. Religion covers that aspect of our existence. We are told to view things from this standpoint: not only this body, but the human race, the animals, the trees, the entire earth, and even the sun, will all vanish and again spring up. Creation, dissolution, creation, dissolution—it will continue forever in the domain of misconception. At the same time, there is another world which is eternal; we are requested to enter there, to make our home in that plane which neither enters into the jaws of death nor suffers any change.

In the Bhagavad-gītā (8.16), it is stated:

ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino ’rjuna
mām upetya tu kaunteya punar janma na vidyate

“Even Lord Brahmā, the creator himself, has to die. Up to Brahmaloka, the highest planet in the material world, the whole material energy undergoes such changes.”

But if we can cross the area of misunderstanding and enter the area of proper understanding, then there is no creation or dissolution. That is eternal, and we are children of that soil. Our bodies and minds are children of this soil which comes and goes, which is created and then dies.We have to get out of this world of death.

We are in such an area. What is to be done? Try to get out. Try your best to get out of this mortal area. The saints inform us, “Come home dear friend; let us go home. Why are you suffering so much trouble unnecessarily in a foreign land? The spiritual world is real. This material world is unreal; springing and vanishing, coming and going—it is a farce! From the world of farce we must come to reality. Here in this material world there will be not only one war, but wars after wars, wars after wars.

There is a zone of nectar, and we are actually children of that nectar that does not die (śṛṇvantu viśve amṛtasya putrā).Somehow, we are misguided here, but really we are children of that soil which is eternal, where there is no birth or death. With a wide and broad heart, we have to approach there. This is declared by Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, and the Bhagavad-gītā, the Upaniṣads, and the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam all confirm the same thing. That is our very sweet, sweet home, and we must try our best to go back to God, back to home, and take others with us.

Swāmī B.R Śrīdhar