Transcendental Nectar of Sadhu-Sanga

by

Sripad Bhakti Madhava Puri Maharaja, Ph.D.

Bhaktivedanta Institute

The following questions were received concerning my previous message:

I still have the doubt about the zero consciousness of matter. I was following the discussion regarding the soul within each and every atom. Could you please explain me what is the difference between life and matter.

Reply: Spirit or Brahman in its uncomprehended immediacy is what we call matter. It is in this sense we can say that matter is the symbol of undeveloped consciousness. I believe it was Karl Jung who said that matter is a symbol we place over reality, that may in fact be spirit or anything else; it may even be God.

Matter is what we call the totality of objective externality, the substance that grounds Nature. Yet as soon as we try to determine what matter is, we must deal with its qualities. The most essential quality of matter is that it is sensuous – it is that which can be smelled, tasted, seen, touched and heard. Each of these sense perceived qualities can be correlated with a particular feature of matter, called by the sankhya philosophers -- earth, water, fire, air and ether.

The Vaiseshika philosophers, as well as the Greek Democratos, and modern western scientists have tried to understand matter in terms of atoms. Atoms are therefore the product of understanding, i.e. thoughts or concepts of matter. But this fact has been forgotten or ignored by modern philosophers and scientists, and only their physical existence is considered without their corresponding conceptual forms. It is in this sense we can speak of the soul or concept of atoms.

It is essential to remember that "object" has only an abstract meaning when considered apart from its corresponding "subject." In other words, there is no object without a subject, and vice versa. A coin has two sides. To consider only one side of a coin in isolation is called an abstraction, because it is merely a thought-construct that has no existence in actuality. We can also say that one side of the coin has been abstracted from the concrete reality of the coin.

In the same way, an atom considered abstractly, apart from its concept is a mental construct that has no actual concrete existence. Yet modern science considers such a physical atom to be wholly concrete, and the concept to be something merely etherial. The fact is, the subject-object, or atom-concept is the true concrete entity, although much more is involved in comprehending this dyadic structure in its entire truth. The thought processes by which subject and object are related, integrated, identified and differentiated is also essential for a complete comprehension. Yet this part of the scientific study of matter is left unexplored by modern materialistic philosophy.

Now there is a vast categorical difference between Matter as above described and Life. Life is characterized by birth, growth, aging, and death, reproduction, eating, self-defense, etc. So there is an enormous difference between matter and life.

The attempt to understand life as a physical mechanism, or chemical reaction is doomed to undermine any understanding of life, because such processes exhibit none of the characteristics by which life is determined. Life is essentially an intentional organism, that actively seeks its own individual survival, as well as the survival of its species.

At the same time, we must not think that Life is the highest category of Reality. Above the concept of life there are much deeper and more profound regions of consciousness, reason and spirit and beyond. But that can hardly be appreciated when even the most common levels of reality are so poorly understood.