Gold

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Srimad-bhagavatam, 7.7.21 (Prahlada maharaja instructed his classmates):

 

"An expert geologist can understand where there is gold and by various

processes can extract it from the gold ore. Similarly, a spiritually advanced

person can understand how the spiritual particle exists within the body, and

thus by cultivating spiritual knowledge he can attain perfection in spiritual

life. However, as one who is not expert cannot understand where there is gold, a

foolish person who has not cultivated spiritual knowledge cannot understand how

the spirit exists within the body."

 

PURPORT

 

"Here is a very good example concerning spiritual understanding. Foolish

rascals, including so-called jnanis, philosophers and scientists, cannot

understand the existence of the soul within the body because they are lacking in

spiritual knowledge. The Vedas enjoin, tad-vijnanartham sa gurum evabhigacchet:

[MU 1.2.12] to understand spiritual knowledge, one must approach a bona fide

spiritual master. Unless one has been trained in geology, one cannot detect gold

in stone. Similarly, unless one has been trained by a spiritual master, he

cannot understand what is spirit and what is matter. Here it is said, yogais

tad-abhijnam. This indicates that one who has connected himself with spiritual

knowledge can understand that there is a spiritual soul within the body.

However, one who is in an animalistic conception of life and has no spiritual

culture cannot understand. As an expert mineralogist or geologist can understand

where there is gold and can then invest his money to d!

ig there and chemically separate the gold from the ore, an expert spiritualist

can understand where the soul is within matter. One who has not been trained

cannot distinguish between gold and stone. Similarly, fools and rascals who have

not learned from an expert spiritual master what is soul and what is matter

cannot understand the existence of the soul within the body. To understand such

knowledge, one must be trained in the mystic yoga system, or, finally, in the

bhakti-yoga system. As stated in Bhagavad-gita (18.55), bhaktya mam abhijanati.

Unless one takes shelter of the bhakti-yoga process, one cannot understand the

existence of the soul within the body. Therefore Bhagavad-gétä begins by

teaching:

dehino 'smin yatha dehe

kaumaram yauvanam jara

tatha dehantara-praptir

dhiras tatra na muhyati

"As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to

old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized

soul is not bewildered by such a change." (Bg. 2.13) Thus the first instruction

is that one should understand that the soul is within the body and is

transmigrating from one body to another. This is the beginning of spiritual

knowledge. Any person who is not expert in understanding this science or is

unwilling to understand it remains in the bodily conception of life, or the

animalistic conception of life, as confirmed in Srimad-Bhagavatam

(yasyatma-buddhih kunape tri-dhatuke. .. sa eva go-kharah [sB 10.84.13]). Every

member of human society should clearly understand the instructions of

Bhagavad-gita, for only in this way can one be spiritually elevated and

automatically give up the false, illusory knowledge by which one thinks, "I am

this body, and everything belonging to this body is mine [aham mameti SB

5.5.8]." !

This doggish conception should be rejected immediately. One should be prepared

to understand the spirit soul and the supreme spirit, God, who are eternally

related. Thus one may return home, back to Godhead, having solved all the

problems of life."

 

 

 

 

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