CONTENTS:
- SRI CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU’S PASTIMES IN JAGANNATHA PURI, NILACHALA (PART - 3)
- SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
- GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
1. SRI CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU’S PASTIMES IN JAGANNATHA PURI, NILACHALA (PART - 3)
We all are spiritual entities. This body made up of matter is only an external feature. Just like we wear a dress or just like we use a machine. Like a car, I am driving the car but am I the car? Similarly, this body is a vehicle that we are using but who is using the vehicle or instrument or machine? I am. Who am I? Spirit soul. What is the proof? The proof is as soon as you step out of this machine, the machine stops, just as soon as you step out of the car all the functioning of the car stops. Similarly, when we step out of this body everything stops, the machine stops. The machine that has been functioning for so many years suddenly stops. All the organs that had been functioning so systematically so efficiently and effectively, the heart was functioning, lungs were functioning, liver was functioning, kidneys were functioning, digestive system was functioning, brain was functioning and nervous system was functioning. So many different parts of the body were working and then all of a sudden everything stops, heart stops beating, lungs stop breathing, stomach stops digesting, nervous system stops receiving information. Everything stops? Why? Because the person who was driving this machine left the machine. Isn’t it just a simple, common-sense understanding? But the thing is that in order to understand something we have to have to have the proper information from the proper source.
In this material nature everyone is thinking: I am this body. When you come across the right teacher who guides you through the right set of books all of a sudden you realize actually, I am not this body, I am a spirit soul. There the spiritual journey begins; I am not the body I am spirit soul. Then this journey creates a destination to a spiritual domain, the spiritual world. The journey begins towards that and then you are getting information’s about that world. That is the world from where you all came from and that world is the spiritual world and the quality of the spiritual beings and things are diametrically opposite to the material world. Material nature is the nature of death mrtyaloka, world of death but that is Amrtaloka, nothing dies there, no one dies there. This world is the world of ignorance, that world is the world of knowledge, world of consciousness. This world is the world of misery and suffering, that world is the world of joy. Diametrically opposed. This is the world of death, unconsciousness, dead matter and world of suffering whereas that world is sacidanandavigra that is a world of eternity, knowledge and bliss. Do you get some understanding about that world?
Okay, let’s go further, then you get to see one personality is the center of that world. He created everything, He maintains everything and you see everyone is part and parcel of Him. So, this is how we get to hear about and know the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then we get to know that the Supreme Personality of Godhead has multifarious energies. There are innumerable energies generally classified into three categories: His eternal energy which is the spiritual world; His external energy this material nature and his marginal energy the living entities. We all are His marginal energy. Why is it marginal? Because these living entities who belong to the marginal potency has the option or prerogative to remain either here or go there. We have a liberty to decide whether we are going to stay here separated from Him or whether we will be there being connected to Him.
Then you get to know further, He has energy, also one’s existence is spiritual called sad conscious aspect, chit and ananda aspect the joy. Our existence is due to one particular type of energy called sad energy, our consciousness is due to the chit potency and our joy is due to the ananda. You want to go even further? They all are personified; they all are persons. Although they are energy, they are persons, personified energy. His pleasure energy is personified as Srimati Radharani. Wherever the Lord is there is His pleasure potency.
Another aspect we got to know in our quest for our spiritual understanding: He expands in two ways one is His separated parts and parcels which we are and the other kind is His own expansions, He Himself expands without losing. Like if we compare to the sun, we are the rays of the sun, very minute yet qualitatively the same, like the ray of the sun has light and heat just as sun has light and heat but a ray is very minute but the sun is absolute.
2. SRILA PRABHUPADA'S APPRECIATION
When you come across the right teacher who guides you through the right set of books all of a sudden you realize actually, I am not this body, I am a spirit soul. There the spiritual journey begins; I am not the body I am spirit soul. Then this journey creates a destination to a spiritual domain, the spiritual world.
3. GURU MAHARAJA’S INSTRUCTIONS
- We all are spiritual entities. This body made up of matter is only an external feature. Just like we wear a dress or just like we use a machine. Like a car, I am driving the car but am I the car? Similarly, this body is a vehicle that we are using but who is using the vehicle or instrument or machine? I am. Who am I? Spirit soul.
(The content of this E-magazine is based on a lecture given by His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami on 10 December 2019 at Jagannatha Puri at morning class (Divine Pilgrimage 2019))
(Compiled and Edited by Hemavati Radhika Devi Dasi)