Jiva

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As we have learned from previous mantras, the brahmajyoti emanating from the

transcendental body of the Lord is full of spiritual sparks that are

individual entities with the full sense of existence. Sometimes these living

entities want to enjoy their senses, and therefore they are placed in the

material world to become false lords under the dictation of the senses.

(Isopanisad, Text 17, purport)

 

The conclusion is that the origin of all life is the bodily effulgence of

the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is confirmed in Brahma-samhita:

yasya prabha prabhavato jagad-ananda-koti. (Bhag. 4.30.5, purport)

 

According to Visnu Purana, Bhagavad-gita and all other Vedic literature's,

the living entities are generated from the tatastha energy of the Lord.

(Bhag. 3.7.9, purport)

 

The inconceivably narrow line of demarcation between land and water or the

line where land and water meet is called Tata; so also the meeting line of

the Cit world or the eternal abode of the Supreme Lord and the Acit world or

the region of maya is called Tata. The power of the Supreme Lord displayed

at the Tata is known as the Tatastha (lying at the Tata) or marginal power.

All the jivas being the display of this power, have the inherent oscillating

tendency and capability of going to the Cit or the Acit world. Tata not

being a resting place, jivas must go this side or that . . . (From an

English article by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta

Sarasvati entitled, Vaisnavism Real and Apparent, 10th paragraph)

 

There are two classes of souls, jivas, who come into this world. One class

comes from the spiritual Vaikuntha planets by the necessity of nitya-lila,

the eternal pastimes of Krsna. Another comes by constitutional necessity.

 

The brahmajyoti, the nondifferentiated marginal plane, is the source of

infinite jiva souls, atomic spiritual particles of nondifferentiated

character. The rays of the Lord's transcendental body are known as the

brahmajyoti, and a pencil of a ray of the brahmajyoti is the jiva. The jiva

soul is an atom in that effulgence, and the brahmajyoti is a product of an

infinite number of jiva atoms.

 

Generally, souls emanate from the brahmajyoti which is living and growing.

Within the brahmajyoti, their equilibrium is somehow disturbed and movement

begins. From nondifferentiation, differentiation begins. From a plain sheet

of uniform consciousness, individual conscious units grow. And because the

jiva is conscious it is endowed with free will. So, from the marginal

position they choose either the side of exploitation or the side of

dedication.

 

A jiva soul has adaptability of both sides; marginal means "endowed with

adaptability towards both the spiritual and material worlds without

participation or any experience of either."

 

The marginal soul (tatastha) has only seed adaptability towards both. He is

situated in the margin between the spiritual and material worlds, and the

margin strictly means that one is in a position to analyze adaptability. He

can go towards the spiritual world and he can come towards the material

world. The possibility of either is there in potentiality, but he is left to

exercise his freedom. Because the soul is a conscious unit, he has free

will. Freedom is inseparable from consciousness. A conscious unit and

freedom are one and the same. Conscious atom means endowed with freedom.

Without freedom, it is matter.

 

Because the soul is very small, his freedom is also imperfect; a soul in the

marginal position is very vulnerable. Freedom does not mean absolute

freedom. Because the soul's existence is small, his freedom is

defective-there is the possibility of committing a mistake. Freedom of the

minute soul does not mean perfect freedom. Complete freedom would be perfect

reality, but the minute soul is endowed with the smallest atomic freedom.

This is the position of the atoms of consciousness, and this is why they are

vulnerable. They may judge properly or improperly; that is the position of

those who are situated in the marginal position. If the soul were not

endowed with the freedom to determine his position, we would have to blame

God for our suffering. But we cannot blame God. The starting point of the

soul's suffering is within himself.

 

The first cause of our entanglement with material nature was our mixing with

maya in a play of curiosity. But as much as we make friends with her, so

much she comes to devour us. ln this way we are in the clutches of maya. But

in the beginning our involvement was very slight, like one experimenting

with drugs. The beginning of our play with maya involved the voluntary

misuse of our free will, and that has led us to this present stage where

maya has devoured us. Maya means our attraction for intoxication: where

there is love of exploitation, there is maya. And truth is the opposite of

exploitation. Truth is found in dedicating everything for the center, for

Krsna.

 

He has no real depth of discrimination; only a little discrimination. But it

is there. However small it may be, it is there.

 

 

 

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