Inquiries Into the Absolute: Digest 131, Does Karma Entangle the

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Digest 131, August 14th, 2005. Answers by His Holiness Romapada Swami Maharaja

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Does Karma Entangle the Soul?

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Q:

Please help me to understand the purport to verse 32 of chapter 13

(http://vedabase.net/bg/13/32/en) of the Bhagavad Gita. I thought that the soul

enjoys and suffers due to his contact with the material body and also entangles

himself with the karma that he performs with that body. How is it then that the

activities performed due to his contact with material bodies do not entangle

him?

 

Answer:

The soul is always transcendental even when situated in the material body. The

changes of the body do not affect the soul in the sense that the soul does not

take birth when the material body is born, nor does it grow old, die etc.

 

In the following verse (13.33 http://vedabase.net/bg/13/33/en) the Lord gives

the example of how the sky or air, although all-pervading, does not mix with

anything. Similarly, spirit does not ever mix with matter. Similar ideas are

expressed in BG 15.8 (http://vedabase.net/bg/15/8/en and SB 1.3.31

(http://vedabase.net/sb/1/3/31/en): when blowing wind passes over different

objects, it acquires different aromas, but the air itself is neither

sweet-smelling nor foul. Although it appears that the conditioned soul is

suffering or enjoying the fruits of his actions and contaminated by the modes

of material nature he is in contact with, actually he is not touched by matter.

 

Srila Prabhupada gives the example of one who is dreaming: in the dream one may

be experiencing great danger or even get killed and may feel all the attendant

emotions, but in reality they are safely lying in their bed. Similarly, the

soul is apparently subject to the happiness and distress of material body &

mind, but is factually unaffected. The appearances of reality in this world

which are factually but illusion are accomplished by the tricks of maya.

 

 

This digest on the web:

http://iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?digestname=digest131

 

All previous digests in one file (with responses to about 400 questions):

http://iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?digestname=digest00

 

Responses to Some Frequently Asked Questions (Karma, free-will, demigods, Lord

Siva, why are we here, how to control the mind, Deity worship, marriage, Jesus

Christ, spiritual and material relationships and morality of Lord Krsna's

conjugal pastimes, spiritual master, spirit soul/jiva/living entity):

http://www.iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?digestname=digest999_faq

 

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