In the Bible it is said, “The kingdom of God is within”. To find it we must look within ourselves. We will not find it high in the sky. The wealth of this kingdom that rests within us is love.

That love can be brought out through service. Sri Chaitanya so simply explained the very essence of spiritual life in this one line, “The nature of the soul is to serve God.” To love means to serve. Love is all about giving.

Another way of expressing love is by remembering. If someone wants to be loved by you they want you to remember them. The more you remember them the more they believe that you actually love them.

When people travel abroad far from their loved ones, they live simply by knowing that they are being remembered. On their birthday, most people really do not care about gifts, especially if they are parents. Parents do not expect gifts from their children but they simply desire that that they should be remembered on their birthday. If they are remembered that’s more than enough for them. So the fact is that, our heart feels the satisfaction of being loved when there is some knowledge that a person is remembering us.

Love takes the form of remembrance. It consumes our consciousness. Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita, anta kale ca mam eva, “If you remember me at the time of death, you will be come to me”. But the only way one will remember Krishna at the time of death is if they remember him throughout their life.

So the kingdom of God is not something we attain after death but it is something we can experience and attain in this lifetime itself. If we can attain it in this life then naturally at the time of death we are transferred there. Thus, a devotee always thinks of Krishna. Krishna says in Bhagavad-Gita man-mana bhava mad-bhakto “Always think of me, always be absorbed in remembering me”. Krishna, who is perfectly self-satisfied, desires this not for his benefit but for our benefit because remembrance is a necessary expression of love. It is by the process of remembering Krishna that the seed of love will sprout in our hearts. Attaining this love is attaining kingdom of God.