We trust various persons of authority to inform us about material subject matters, but whom shall we trust in regard to transcendental subject matters and the transcendental world? We cannot experience transcendence with any of our material senses. How then, can we have an idea of that pure reality? We can see the body, but not the soul. How can we verify that there is a soul beyond matter? Though God is everywhere, we don?t see Him. How then, can we determine who is God? Although it is evident that we cannot control the world, how can we trust that there is a God from whom this creation has come, and how can we be confident that it is He who controls it? Millions of people are born daily, and millions also die. Who controls this overwhelming tide of birth and death? Sea waves come on schedule, the sun appears on schedule, and new days come with continuous regularity. We do not control those rhythms, yet somehow, everything is maintained.
We are not these mortal bodies and this world is not our real home. We are but passers-by, taking a material body for some time only to leave it, and then taking another. Lost and forlorn, we remain oblivious to our blissful real identity. This journey of the soul ends joyfully, however, by the mercy of true saints, such as Srila Naraya?a Gosvami Maharaja. Part One of this book consists of selected lectures by him, as well as interviews and informal meetings on the topic of the truth of the soul (jiva-tattva). Part Two delivers three chapters from Srila Bhaktivinoda ?hakura?s Jaiva-dharma, and Part Three consists of quotes by Srila Bhaktivedanta Svami Maharaja, Srila Prabhupada.