Fwd: Whether everything in the material creation is actually spirit or not?
Shuklambhara Das
From: "Shyama Vallabha Dasa" <sm...@hkm-group.org>
Date: Feb 15, 2013 8:37 PM
Subject: Whether everything in the material creation is actually spirit or not?
To:
Cc:
During the evening, as the temple room reverberated with a thunderous sundara-ärati kértana, Acyutänanda Swami, Puñöa Kåñëa Swami and I had a debate on the balcony about whether everything in the material creation is actually spirit or not.
Acyutänanda Swami, a witty, brilliant speaker, argued that everything is not spirit, at least not in the sense that spiritual means everything is conscious. Thinking that everything made of matter is conscious, he said, could lead to madness. You might walk around on tiptoes not wishing to hurt the floor, or you might hesitate to close the door, not wishing to hurt the door. In this way, Mahäräja spoke quite convincingly that matter is not spirit.
Later I went in to see Çréla Prabhupäda to get a proper understanding. When I put the question to him, he immediately cited Çrémad-Bhägavatam 1.5.20. He had me read it aloud: "The Supreme Personality of Godhead is Himself this cosmos, and still He is aloof from it. From Him only has this cosmic manifestation emanated, in Him it rests, and unto Him it enters after annihilation. Your good self knows all about this. I have given only a synopsis."
He then explained that everything is spirit, and thus everything is conscious. The material energy is conscious, but undeveloped. It can develop consciousness by Kåñëa's will. Prasädam is matter but changes into spirit, and it is therefore conscious.
He gave me an example he used a few days ago, how the body produces skin and nails: one is sensitive and the other insensitive. Cut one and you feel pain, cut the other and you feel nothing. Yet the body as a whole is conscious.
The universe is Kåñëa's body and thus is conscious. Jévas, the individual souls, are very minute consciousness, but there is also "mass consciousness." If you touch a stone it is conscious, yet unconscious, or undeveloped. The term "matter" simply indicates the state of one of Lord Kåñëa's eternal spiritual potencies.
I left his room happy in mind and gratified in heart. This is one of the advantages of being with him personally—all doubts can be immediately resolved. As disciples, we may read Çréla Prabhupäda's books yet still end up speculating. But a few direct words from His Divine Grace and everything becomes clear. He always refers to a scriptural verse when asked a question and has the purport read out. It invariably explains the point perfectly. Çréla Prabhupäda is intimately familiar with everything in each of his books, and his deep realizations enable him to answer every question to one's complete satisfaction. - Hari Sauri Prabhu’s Transcendental Dairy Vol 1 – Mar 4th, 1976
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