Jivas Enthralled And Emancipated

Jivas Enthralled And Emancipated

SREE SAJJANA-TOSHANI OR THE HARMONIST SEPTEMBER 1929

WE have the following from the holy lips of our Divine Lord in His instructions to Sanatan: Krishna is One without a second, Whose attributes form, name and pastimes are one and the same. He is eternally served by His plenary spiritual power. He manifests Himself as plenary constituent factors of His own Self and as differentiated parts, and indulges in transcendental pastimes in this world as well as in the infinite Baikuntha the spiritual world. His plenary manifestations are Vasudeva, Sankarsan, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. The created world is the example of His differentiated power. Individual souls are of two classes, one is ever liberated, the other ever-fettered to the world. The ever liberated are ever eager for serving Krishna’s feet, they are Krishna’s exclusive followers and they enjoy the bliss of serving Him. The ever-fettered are ever excluded from Krishna and ever feel the sufferings of limited existence; the Fury, Illusion or maya constantly haunts them and for that reason the three afflictions scourge them, they are kicked at by Lust and Anger and other deadly sins whose slaves they are. If in course of their life’s roamings they meet with an ever-liberated soul as their healer his teaching like a charm exorcises the demon Maya (Illusion) out of them; then they experience devotion to Krishna and come to Him,”

Again, “The soul of man is the eternal servant of Krishna and is His marginal power. It is the manifestation of Him that is simultaneously identical and distinct-just as a ray of the sun in regard to the sun or a spark of fire in regard to the fire. Again, in course of His instruction to Rupa He says,-

“Behold in the universe countless beings that pass through eighty four lakhs of births. The form of a jiva is infinitesimally small.”

In His teachings to Sarvabhauma He says, “God and jiva differ as the Master and the slave ever liable to be led astray from his natural and unconditional allegiance, respectively; and yet you do not hesitate to affirm that the jiva is identical with the Creator. In the Gita we have it that the individual soul (jiva) is a potency of God. Yet you make such power identical with God the Possessor thereof.”

From these great sayings we gather that Krishna has powers inconceivable and His will is free and unrestrained. By the exercise of His spiritual power He manifests Himself as plenary and distinct, entities.

As plenary entities He manifests Himself in the fourfold forms of the four appurtenances and innumerable manifestations on the mundane plane, and as distinct entities He is manifest as innumerable jivas all over the world. Plenary manifestations are the actions of His full spiritual power and are all identical with Himself. From the perfect whole every part derives full power just as innumerable lamps may be lighted from one Great Lighted Lamp without the latter’s light being dimmed in the least. Every one of the derived lights gives as much light as the Original Source. Similar is the case with the plenary Divine Persons that are full manifestations of God Himself. They are all Lords of all lords and are not subject to the law of consequential activities like mortals. Their will is well-nigh as free as that of Krishna Himself but subordinate only to His Supreme will.

A jiva is only a scintilla of the full spiritual power and is called marginal power because he exists on the margin where the bounds of the spiritual power meet those of the illusory power. He is not of the essence of the illusory power; still being only a minute particle he is liable to be overpowered by it.

The individual souls spring from the inconceivable power of Krishna by His unrestrained will and have to take the consequences of their own actions. As long as the soul can exercise his own free will and serve Krishna he is not dominated by the illusory power but just as he abuses his free will and craves for enjoyment forgetting that servitude to Krishna is his real nature and that he is the eternal servant of Krishna he is infatuated by the illusory power of Krishna and reaps the fruit appropriate to such actions. The very memory of his free natural condition, viz., servitude to Krishna restores him to his unalloyed senses and frees him from the bondage of fruitive work and cures him of the disease of illusion. As he has been in bondage from before his coming under the domain of divisible time his bondage is called eternal and he is said to be eternally fettered. Those who are not so bound are eternally free. Those who are bound are under eternal thraldom, for these reasons there is a good deal of difference between God and the individual soul; God is the Master of maya or the limiting power while the jiva is liable to fall under the influence of Maya and be fettered by it. As he is a particle of the great spiritual Krishna he may well be called a particle of the All-Soul and regarded as distinct from Krishna. So our Lord Sri Chaitanyadeva has called the relationship between God and the jiva as that of inconceivable simultaneous distinction and non-distinction (achintya bhedabheda tattwa) like that between fire and the spark, the sun and the ray. The passages in the Vedas, dealing with one of the aspects of the issue, such as “I am Brahman (aham Brahmasmi) can be no authority for the assertion that God and the jiva are the same. Krishna or the All-Pervasive Reality Vishnu is the only Ultimate Powerful Infinitude.

As the individual soul is by essence spiritual he may be called identical in essence with the Greatest (Brahma). The principles of the Ultimate and Infinite (Brahma) is the external halo of Krishna’s transcendental person; and a part of Him pervades the whole universe as Oversoul. Just above this phenomenal universe Krishna manifests Himself in an undifferentiated manner as the unimaginable, invisible unattainable all-controlling Great (Brahma). His unimaginable dissociated part has manifested itself in the forms of man and beasts, birds and insects, Jakshas and Rakshasas and demons.

Of all beings man is the highest as he is fit for cultivating devotion to Krishna. Though an individual soul may obtain the body of a man he has still to suffer on account of his misdeeds. Man blinded by Maya forgets Krishna and runs after mundane enjoyments.

Jiva, the minute particle of the Self-conscious, is the servant of Krishna Who is the Self-Conscious principle in its plenitude. The moment that he recollects that he is the eternal servant of Krishna he is liberated. The power that is inherent in the spiritual principle is present in the individual soul in a very slight degree and consequently the individual soul is well-nigh powerless. He obtains power from God in a liberated state. The attainment of the vague idea that he is a spiritual being does not give him any strength and the salvation that he attains thereby is nirvana or cessation of function. But the recollection that he is an eternal servant of Krishna injects in him that Divine power which gives him eternal felicity and he is liberated from all sorts of fear accruing from Maya the Illusory power.

Individual souls in the state of bondage are of various kinds. They are given places in accordance with the merits of the deeds performed by them. They are made of the elements of the illusory power of limitation; mayavad or the wrong doctrine of illusory limitations get hold of us if we take it for granted that we are composed of the essence of limitation; the individual soul is, in reality, made of purely spiritual matter and spiritual properties; but on account of his tatastha or marginal position he is liable to be saturated with the properties of the illusory power, as the individual soul happens to be an infinitesimally small part of the spiritual power. That, too, is the consequence of forgetting his own real status of dependence on Krishna.

The substance, form and functions of a pure soul (suddha jiva) are all spiritual. The jiva being only an atomic part of the Divine Soul is liable to be enthralled by Maya or illusion. The enthralled jiva is doubly encased, first, by the subtile form composed of mind, intelligence and perverted ego and, secondly, by the gross material body which makes the whole machinery fit for work in the material world. The physical and mental bodies are but adventitious circumstances caused by the individual soul’s connection with the limiting or illusory power. Thus arises the semblance in function between the two-the pure soul and the fallen soul. Earth, water, fire, air and ether are the material elements of the physical body. The mind, intelligence and perverted ego (ahamkar) compose the subtile body (linga deha). When these two encasements are subordinated to the spiritual essence the individual soul is freed from the domination of the limiting principle. Then does the spiritual body of the soul composed of the principles of unalloyed existence, self-consciousness and bliss manifest itself. A liberated soul performs all his functions with the aid of his spiritual senses. The spiritual body has nothing to do with functions on the worldly plane. When the jiva mistakes this material body for his self the work done by this gross body and sufferings accruing therefrom are also thought by him to be done and suffered by himself. Hence it is that he feels pleasure and pain. There is another secret about the liberated soul. A liberated soul, so long as he cannot get rid of his gross perverted knowledge or has salvation in view cannot acquire an unadulterated state fit for devotional service. That liberated condition alone which is the outcome of spiritual association with self-realised souls enables him to realise the spiritual form. The company of the salvationist (jnani) can give a sort of liberation which may well be called fictitious. That, too, is a misfortune for the individual soul.