Where Do We Come From?

[Guest guest]

<h2>

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

</h2>

In Srimad Bhagavad gita a clear and rational answer is given to these basic questions, these questions that people have voiced in every culture in every age of humankind.

 

We are spiritual beings (souls). We have been in existence for all eternity. We have no beginning and we will never cease to exist at any time in the future.

 

But most of us are oblivious to the Self.

 

We adopt a false persona and act like puppets in a Punch and Judy show. A powerful force within wants to express rage and anger through these lips of mine, and I go along with the urge I feel. I say harsh things. A force moves my hand to strike someone, and lacking the will to control myself I hit out. Instinct drives my body, and I follow along. Like a man riding on a chariot driven by a crazy driver I go down pathways I should never go along - and then I see myself suffering consequences that arise from acts of anger, greed and laziness.

 

But we can experience an altogether different reality:

 

<em>brahma-bhutah prasannatma na socati na kanksati

samah sarvesu bhutesu mad-bhaktim labhate param</em>

 

Sri Krishna said:

<em>The joyful hearted, enlightened soul who has attained his divine nature neither feels sorrows nor desires. Seeing all beings equally, he comes to the stage of attaining transcendental loving devotion to Me.</em>

 

<em>ihaiva tair jitah sargo yesam samye sthitam manah

nirdosam hi samam brahma tasmad brahmani te sthitah</em>

 

<em>Those whose minds are established in sameness and equanimity have already conquered the conditions of birth and death. They are flawless like Brahman, and thus they are already situated in Brahman.</em>

 

This is certainly the case. A liberated soul who has realized brahma-nirvana feels joyful and free from karma.

 

But....

someone who has attained brahma-nirvana or the liberation of becoming one with the formless Absolute (nirvisesha brahma) is not perfectly liberated, for they can always descend from Brahman into material existence and become engaged in samsara (worldly illusion) and karma. It is only the devotees of Sri Hari, the Lord of Love, who attain a destination that no-one will ever fall down from.

 

Srimad Bhagavatam 10.2.32:

<em>ye 'nye 'ravindaksa vimukta-maninas

tvayy asta-bhavad avis'uddhabuddhayah

aruhya krcchrena param padam tatah

patanty adho 'nadrta yusmad-an'ghrayah</em>

 

A person may experience liberation in brahman (sayujya mukti) and enjoy a state of liberation where the soul has no karma or material bondage. Revelling in the bliss of the immortal Self, the soul feels the joy of sat-chit-ananda existence. However, as this verse of Srimad Bhagavatam says, "patanty adho 'nadrta yusmad-an'ghrayah", the liberated souls absorbed in brahma-nirvana can fall from the Light into the material world where they become caught in the networks of karma.

 

Kaushitaki Upanishad 3.3:

<em>What is prana (breath of life), that is prajna (self-consciousness)? What is prajna - that same thing is prana. For both breath and consciousness are present in this living body, and together they go out of it. This is the evidence of that: When a person is so deeply asleep that he sees no dream whatever, then he becomes one with that vital breath of the soul that is within. Then speech and the words someone thinks join together with all the names someone knows, and they also go into that vital breath. The eye together with all forms it sees goes to it. The ear together with all sounds goes to it. The mind together with all thoughts goes to it. Then when he awakes, as from a blazing fire sparks fly out in all directions, even so from this self the vital breaths proceed to their respective stations. From the vital breaths, the gods controlling the senses emerge. From the gods, the worlds emerge. This same vital breath, the self of intelligence, seizes hold of the body and raises it up. </em>

 

An atmarama, a soul who finds full satisfaction within the Self, has no attachment to this material world. The entire world seems like a dream to him. An illusion where one being feeds on the bodies of others so that one might live:

 

Srimad Bhagavatam 1.13.47

<em>ahastani sahastanam apada-ni catus-padam

phalguni tatra mahatam jivo jivasya jivanam</em>

 

<em>Those who are devoid of hands are prey for those who have hands; those devoid of legs are prey for the four-legged. The weak are the subsistence of the strong, and the general rule holds that one living being is food for another.</em>

 

But the liberated soul, an atmarama soul, is unattached to this world:

 

Chandogya Upanishad 8.12.3:

<em>That serene being, arising from this body, appear in its own form, as soon as it has approached the highest light, the knowledge of Self. He, in that state, is the highest person (uttama purusha). He moves about there laughing or eating, playing, and rejoicing in his mind, be it with women, carriages, or relatives, never minding that body into which he was born. </em>

 

In his commentary to verse 2.2.186 of Sri Brhadbhagavatamrtam, Srila Sanatan Goswami quotes Shankaracarya's verse, "mukta api lilaya vigraham kritva bhagavantam bhajanta", which he translated as "Even the liberated assume a form and worship the Lord in his pastimes". Srila Sanatan Goswami then quotes Srimad Bhagavatam 6.14.5 "muktanam api siddhanam narayana parayana", that is, "The liberated and perfected souls are engaged in Narayan's service." Srila Sanatan Goswami then asks himself: "If liberated souls didn't have forms then how could they engage in the Lord's service?" The answer: "Bhagavati layam praptasyapi nri dehasya mahamuneh punar narayana rupena pradurbhavah". Even those who have merged into the Lord have dormant human forms.

 

In another part of Brhad Bhagatamrtam, the commentary to verse 2.2.207, Sri Sanatana Goswami also wrote:

<em>O great sage, among many millions who are liberated and perfect in knowledge of liberation, one may be a devotee of Lord Narayana, or Krishna. Such devotees, who are fully peaceful, are extremely rare. Impersonalists generally imagine themselves perfect and liberated, and among them a very few may actually attain impersonal liberation. But those rare souls, like all others, are eternal servants of Hari, the all attractive Lord. Out of millions of such rare liberated impersonalists, one very fortunate soul may realize this natural fact. Since intelligence is dormant in the merged soul, it can be reawakened. Even the liberated souls who have merged into the formless divine light of the spiritual sky retain their eternal spiritual bodies, complete with spiritual mind and senses. Nothing, not even liberation, can ever deprive a jiva of these assets. The muktas worship Hari's most attractive attributes and glories with spiritual bodies. Such worship is not done with material bodies and senses. Consequently the muktas hear and chant with spiritual bodies and senses. The spiritual body and senses are reawakened, so that the soul returns to his original state of pure siddha perfection.

 

</em>