Soul in Qu'ran

[Pankaja_Dasa]

 

 

Jaiva-Dharma

 

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura

 

Srila Narayana Maharaja

Chapter Five

-Vaidhi-Bhakti is Eternal

 

 

 

Lahiri Mahasaya was a learned scholar of the Farsi language, and he had studied the thirty sepharas of the Qu'ran, and many books of the Sufis. He asked the Kazi, "According to your ideology, what is meant by mukti?"

 

The Kazi replied, "What you refer to as the jiva, individual soul, we call ruh. This ruh is found in two conditions: ruh-mujarrad, the conscious or liberated soul; and ruh-tarkibi, the conditioned soul. What you refer to as spirit (cit) we call mujarrad, and what you refer to as matter (acit) we call jism. Mujarrad is beyond the limitations of time and space, whereas jism is subordinate to time and space. The conditioned soul (ruh-tarkibi, or baddha-jiva) has a material mind and is full of ignorance (malphut). The liberated souls (ruh-mujarrad) are pure and aloof from all these contaminations, and they reside in the spiritual abode, which is known as alam al-mashal.

 

"The ruh becomes pure through the gradual development of ishqh (prema). There is no influence of matter (jism) in that abode where Khoda (God) brought the prophet Paigambar Sahib. Yet even there, the ruh remains as a servitor (banda), and the Lord is the master. Therefore the relationship between the banda and Khoda is eternal, and liberation (mukti) is actually the attainment of this relationship in its pure form. The Qu'ran and the literature of the Sufis explain these conclusions, but not everybody can understand them. Gauranga Mahaprabhu mercifully taught Chand Kazi all these points, and since that time we have become His unalloyed bhaktas."