Inquiries Into the Absolute: Digest 166, Nitya-baddha soul;

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Digest 166, May 1st 2006. Answers by His Holiness Romapada Swami Maharaja

**You are welcome to send in your questions to HH Romapada Swami at

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Why is the soul called Nitya baddha?

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Q: I was reading SB 3.26.5 purport where Prabhupada talks about nitya-baddha.

http://www.vedabase.net/sb/3/26/5/en

 

How one can be nitya-baddha or eternally conditioned? One can take the process

of devotional service seriously by accepting bona fide spiritual master and can

achieve the transcendental association of the Lord and go beyond the cycle of

birth and death. So, how one can be nitya-baddha or eternally conditioned? I

thought a soul is temporarily conditioned.

 

Answer: The term 'nitya baddha' refers to the living being's long-term

entanglement in matter going beyond even the beginning of the present creation.

It does NOT allude to a condition where some souls are permanently conditioned,

nor does it preclude them from ever becoming liberated.

 

In the purport quoted above, Srila Prabhupada explains: 'We say that they have

been conditioned from time immemorial because no one can trace out when the

living entity, the part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, became rebellious

against the supremacy of the Lord.' In other words, it is not a chronological

event that can be traced within the history of material time as we know it.

Material time itself has a beginning at the beginning of each cycle of

creation, whereas the soul exists eternally and his predisposition towards the

Lord precedes the creation and the beginning of Time as we know it.

 

In that sense, the word 'nitya' or 'eternally conditioned' in the context of

our material bondage is not used in the sense of absolute time but in terms of

material time. If this was not so, Lord Krishna and all the great acharyas

would not take the trouble to give us the process of liberation and encourage

us to revive or reestablish our eternal loving relationship with Him.

 

Soul's minute free-will and desire to enjoy independently

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Q: Is it correct to say that the individual souls have natural inclination to

enjoy independently? If yes, then what is the hope that the individual soul

will ever become dependent and serve the Lord? How natural would that state

be?

 

Answer: No, it is not a natural inclination of the soul to enjoy independent of

the Lord. It is the nature of the soul to be jubilant and to enjoy; as the

Vedanta sutra says, anandamayo 'bhyasat. But we have the choice to seek that

enjoyment in service to Krishna or in forgetfulness of Him.

 

What is natural for the soul is the propensity to serve. Our acharyas have

taught that this is the 'dharma' or eternal occupation or natural inclination

of all living entities. Just as the dharma of sugar is sweetness or the dharma

of water is liquidity, similarly the nature of living entity is rendering

service; but we have the choice - to voluntarily serve God or to serve

something other than God. We can readily observe that everyone in this world,

without an exception, is serving someone or something. But because it is not in

relation to the Supreme, they find all their services to be unfulfilling,

frustrating and baffling.

 

It is the most natural state for the living entity to feel dependent on the

Lord; in fact, we are dependent on Him for our existence in any case, whether

we acknowledge it or not. What is unnatural is our forgetfulness, just as the

frozen condition of water is an unnatural state, and as soon as normal

conditions are restored, ice becomes liquid again. Living entities in their

pure or natural state are called devotees.

 

Q: Why is our free-will infinitesimally smaller compared to the Supreme

free-will?

 

Answer: Because we are infinitesimal. The Lord is vibhu, or Great, whereas we

are anu, or tiny. Just as a drop of ocean contains much of the same chemicals

as the ocean does but in minute quantity, similarly, as minute parts and

parcels of the Infinite Lord, we possess in minute quantities all the qualities

of the Lord, one of them being His Supreme free-will or independence.

 

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This digest on the web:

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All previous digests in one file (with responses to about 460 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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Related Sites: http://www.romapadaswami.com, http://www.caitanya.com

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