Transcendental Nectar of Sadhu-Sanga

by

Sushen Krishna Das, Ph.D.

Bhaktivedanta Institute

www.mahaprabhu.net/satsanga

jaga.suresh@gmail.com

Mob: +91-9748906907

This article is a response to this message.

Dear Professor Thippur V. Sreenivas:

Thank you for your question on evolution and rebirth (punarjanma). We have to first understand the difference between the matter and spirit to have a proper understanding about rebirth (punarjanma).

When a man dies, he quits the gross body, but the subtle body of mind (mana), intelligence (buddhi) and false ego (ahamkara) carries him to a new body (ksetra). While existing in the present body (ksetra), the same subtle body carries him from one stage of life to another (for example, from childhood to boyhood) by mental development. The mental condition of a baby is different from that of a boy, the mental condition of a boy is different from that of a young man, and the mental condition of a young man is different from that of an old man (SB 4.12.18.) Even medical science tells us with its limited sensory observations that all the cells in a human body are renewed in every seven years.

That indicates that subtle body carries the ksetrajna (soul) from present gross body to another gross body. A similar example we can experience even with our limited sense observation, where a caterpillar transforms its entire body into a flying butterfly body. Caterpillars mostly eat the leaves of flowering plants and trees using their powerful jaws (mandibles), where as the butterflies can only sip liquid food using a tube-like proboscis, which is a long, flexible "tongue." Hence we can easily observe form this example of caterpillar and butterfly that a distinct change of body, food habits, means to consume food, the type of motion exhibited and many more such symptoms are entirely different. Even though the gross body of a caterpillar has completely changed into a butterfly body the living entity or soul (ksetrajna) is still the same. In this example we can distinctly notice the transformation process from one gross body to another as pupation stage.

This change of gross body taken place due to the subtle body; the mind, intelligence and false ego. However, the transformation of one gross body to another gross body after the death of a living entity (ksetrajna) is not observable by our sensory observations. Due to this reason only there is a blind believe in the modern science that the life is finished after the death. This is to be considered as an imaginary concept of a blind man. Modern science and all its theories are fully dependent on the sensory observations and hence its statements on the phenomenon which are beyond the sensory observations are to be considered as the statements of a blind man. At death the process of changing bodies takes place due to the subtle body; the mind, intelligence and false ego carry the soul (ksetrajna) from one gross body to another. This is called transmigration of the soul (ksetrajna) (SB 4.12.18.) If one can completely over come the bodily consciousness (both gross and subtle body consciousness) then he/she can come out of this dangerous cycle of birth and death (punarjanma) and thus is known to be in a transcendental platform.

You can watch an interesting video lecture on "Waves of Birth & Death" by Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Maharaja here.

The evolutionists understand the process of evolution based on the observations they collect from the gross matter, but that is incorrect. They even don't consider subtle matter mind (mana), intelligence (buddhi) and false ego (ahamkara) in their imaginary theories. However, the Vedic science talks about subjective evolution which we must scientifically study and understand. An explanation on this can be found in the book "Subjective Evolution of Consciousness.Download 

The book Subjective Evolution of Consciousness is also discussed by Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, Ph.D. in weekly online lectures. The audio lectures in MP3s format on the same can be found here.

We are presenting below an excerpt from Chapter 1: "Fossilism, Hypnotism, & The Cosmos." This is a part of the conversation between Srila Sridhar Maharaj, neurophysiologist Dr. Daniel Murphey and physical organic chemist Dr. Thoudam Singh.

----------------------------------------

Dr. Singh: When scientists speak of evolution they mean that life has evolved from matter. I have heard you speak of evolution with quite a different concept. You say that everything is evolving from consciousness.

Srila Sridhar Maharaj: Yes, consciousness comes first and then matter. The basis of all things material is consciousness, which is spiritual. Consciousness can contact consciousness directly. When consciousness comes into the stage of matter, material conception, we experience a kind of vague consciousness; first there is hazy consciousness and then material consciousness. But everything has its spiritual side. And as eternal souls, our direct connection is really only with the conscious aspect of existence. For example, the Earth is conceived of as a woman. According to the Vedas, the presiding deity of the Earth is a woman. And the sun is conceived of as a devata, a male god.

The soul, coming into material consciousness, must come through some hazy reflection of consciousness, cidabhasa. Only then can the soul experience material consciousness. Before pure consciousness evolves to material consciousness, it will pass through a hazy stage of consciousness or cidabhasa. So in the background of every material thing, there is a spiritual conception. This cannot but be true.

Dr. Singh: What is cidabhasa?

Srila Sridhar Maharaj: Something like mind. Suppose consciousness comes to feel matter. When consciousness is coming to the material world to know the material world, it has to first pass through material consciousness, and then it can feel what is matter. According to Darwin's theory, matter gradually produces consciousness, but before producing consciousness it must produce some hazy consciousness, then mind, and then the soul. But in reality, it is just the opposite. So subjective evolution parallels objective or material evolution. But in the evolution of consciousness, the supersubject is first, then the individual soul or jiva-subject is next. Then, from the subjective consciousness of the jivas, matter is produced. But consciousness must penetrate hazy consciousness to perceive matter.

I say that the process of evolution moves from the top downward. The Absolute Reality - if we at all assert that there is anything which is the absolute reality - must possess two qualifications. What is that? First, in the words of Hegel, He must be by Himself: He is his own cause. Second - and more important to us, He is for Himself: He exists to fulfill His own purpose. He is not subservient to any other entity, for then His position would be secondary. Reality the Absolute is full in Himself. All other things are coming from Him. The perfect substance already exists. What appears to us as imperfect comes down according to our own defective senses.

The imperfect must be dependent upon the perfect, the ultimate reality. And the imperfect may be so arranged by Him in order to prove His perfection. To prove the perfection of the Absolute, there is conditioned and unconditioned, finite and infinite reality. The defective world therefore has an indirect relation to the truth.

However, consciousness cannot jump at once into the conception of matter; it must pass through a process to come to material consciousness. From the marginal position, from the verge of the higher eternal potency, evolution and dissolution of this material world begins. This takes place only on the outskirts of svarupa-sakti, which is the system responsible for the evolution of the spiritual plane, and is an eternally evolving dynamic whole. It is not that nondifferentiation is the origin of differentiation. An eternally differentiated substance exists. That plane is filled with lila, dynamic pastimes. If a static thing can be conceived of as eternal, then why can't a dynamic thing be conceived of as eternal? That plane of svarupa-sakti is fully evolved within. It is eternal. Evolution and dissolution concern only the degradation of the subtle spirit to the gross material platformand his evolution towards perfection. Here there is evolution and dissolution, but these things do not exist in the eternal abode of svarupa-sakti.

Dr. Singh: Objective evolution is what modern science calls Darwinian evolution, but how does subjective evolution unfold in Krishna conscious science?

Srila Sridhar Maharaj: You have to take the example of hypnotism. Through a form of mystic "hypnotism,'' the supersubject controls the subject to see a particular thing, and he is bound to see that. One may think that as we see a stone, the stone compels us to see it as stone, but it is just the opposite: we are compelled to see it as stone being under the influence of the supersubject who displays everything as He likes. When He commands, "See stone," then we shall see stone. Full control over whatever we see rests in His hands. No power to control what we see rests in the objective world. The objective world is fully controlled by the subjective. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita, where Krishna says pasya me yogam aisvaryam: "If I say, 'Behold my mystic power,' you are bound to see it. You have no other choice."

Krishna says mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca: He is the prime cause of remembrance, forgetfulness, and intelligence. He is the controller. For His own pleasure, His lila, He can do anything. This is true not only in the material world, but also in His own domain. What is meant by this statement of the Gita concerns this brahmanda, this material world. The gist of this statement is that from the lower planetary systems up to the highest - this entire area of evolution and dissolution - everything is manipulated by Him. No credit can be attached to any external thing. All credit should go to the Center who controls everything.

And reality is subjective. It is based on consciousness. Color is perceived through the eye. It is not that the color is there and the eye can catch it. But the seer sees through the eye and perceives color. So color is a perception. Its position as actual substance should be traced to the subtle plane of existence. This is the nature of reality: the gross is coming from the subtle. In Sankhya philosophy, of course, that is described as a bifurcated thing. According to Sankhya philosophy, there are three branches of reality: the sense, the senses, and the sense objects. Sound is created by the ear, color is produced by the eye, and so on.

The objects of the senses are in the mode of ignorance, tama-guna, the sensual instruments are in the mode of passion, raja-guna, and the power of sensation is in the mode of goodness, sattva-guna. From these proceed light, the eye, and color; sky, the ear, and sound. In this way, mundane reality branches in three ways: tama, raja, and sattva. So the gross world is coming from the subtle through the channel of consciousness. The feeler, the instrument of perception, is creating the object of his perception.

Try to understand this principle of hypnotism. The whole thing is hypnotism - this whole creation - and it is completely in the hand of the Supreme Subject. All material laws have no meaning; the laws and the sublaws are all pertaining to the subjective world.

Dr. Murphey: But how can one perceive this sort of hypnotism?

Srila Sridhar Maharaj: How can we know beforehand that in a laboratory, combining hydrogen and oxygen - two gases - will produce water? Only when one comes to a particular stage of scientific knowledge can he know that a more subtle thing like gas can produce a tangible material thing like water. In that way, when you have an idea of the higher substance, then you can understand how from the subtle, the gross has originated.

The relative world is a perverted reflection of the absolute reality. Highly qualified things must be given the position of causal importance. It is not that a lower thing can produce a higher thing, but it is easy for a higher thing to produce something lower. This is not difficult to understand.

The modern scientific position is saying basically that stone can produce soul; but why not consider that soul can produce stone? We have to inquire about that process - how the soul can produce stone. But we have done away with that and instead we say that stone is gradually producing soul - we are very fond of investigating in that line. Why? The subtle should be given more importance than the gross. Why should we think that man has created God, and not that God has created man?

Dr. Singh: Then God is the magician and we are His subjects?

Srila Sridhar Maharaj: Not only is He a magician, but the Super-magician. He is not merely the kind of magician that is within our experience.

----------------------------------------

Thanking you.

Sincerely,

Sushen Krishna das

----------------------------------------

 "How do you know that the incessant progress of science will not compel scientists ... to consider that life has existed during eternity, and not matter? ... How do you know that in 10,000 years one will not consider it more likely that matter has emerged from life?" --- Louis Pasteur (French chemist and microbiologist)

----------------------------------------