Now Kṛṣṇa is giving a practical way of understanding the presence of soul. He says, yena sarvam idaṁ tatam: "One thing, which is spread all over the body, that is avināśi." That means immortal. So what is that which is spread all over the body? It is not the skin, not the... This is also spread over the body. The skin, the bone, the marrow, the blood—they are also spread over the body, but Kṛṣṇa is not meaning this material things. The actual active principle within this body is the spirit soul. Now, in medical science, bones are being replaced; flesh also being replaced; blood is also being replaced by injection. So everything can be replaced materially by scientific improvement. But when that things which is immortal, that is gone, it cannot be replaced.
Active principle (Lectures)
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Just like one is considered to be intelligent when he tries to understand not this physiological or anatomical construction of this body. He wants to see by intelligence what is the active principle of this body that is working. That is intelligence, not that...
Just like a child. A child sees that a nice motor c
One should give more stress on the spiritual side because that is the active principle. So that is called knowledge. A man is to be understood in knowledge when he is giving, I mean to say, importance to the spiritual side. He is called jñānī. Otherwise they are fools. So jñānam. Jñānam means cid-acid-vastu-vivecanam, to understand what is matter and spirit.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
This is the meaning of śrotavyādīni rājendra nṛṇāṁ santi sahasraśaḥ (SB 2.1.2). So they have no time to read a little news we are giving about God in the Back to Godhead. They have no... Why? Now apaśyatām ātma-tattvam (SB 2.1.2). They do not know what is ātmā, what is the active principle of all these activities. They do not know. The superficially... Bahir-art... Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ durāśayā ye, durāśayā... What is that? Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ (SB 7.5.31). Durāśayā, they have got so many news to hear with a hope—means useless hope—that they will be able to exist here and be happy.
The same example of the haṁsa, swan. Paramahaṁsa means they are interested with the essence of this world, not with the adulteration. What is the adulteration? The adulteration is matter and the essence is spirit. Just like this body. What is this body? This body is that I am a spirit soul, living entity. I am encaged in this material body. Everything. Even in the atom there is some active principle. A drug, there is some active principle. So similarly, in this body, my body, your body, or any body, what is the active principle? The active principle is that living soul. As soon as the active principle is gone, then it is useless. "Dust thou art, dust thou be-est." Then this body is made of this earth, and it again becomes earth. Either as stool or as earth or as ashes. These are the our experience.
The swan takes out the active principle. The swans, they live in a very nice place where there is very clear water, nice garden, nice fruits, flowers, birds chirping. You will find, these white swans are there. When I was in London I saw there was a, there is a nice Regent Park. There are many swans. The park is mostly flower, rose flower, nice park. So they are living there. And the crows, where they live? They'll go where you throw away all nasty things. They will go and enjoy there. You see, the crows. Why? Why the crows does not do like the swans, and the white swans do not do like these crows? These are the different qualities. The whole world is moving in different qualities. Therefore the quality of goodness, that has to be acquired in human form of life.
So with this combination of sixteen elements, within that there is the soul. He is enwrapped in so many wrappers, mana, buddhi, ahaṅkāra and... Altogether twenty-four wrappers, and within that wrappers there is the living soul. The modern science, they cannot understand this. They are searching after the active principle or living force within this body, but they have no information. But here, in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, you get the full analysis. Tad etat ṣoḍaśa-kalam. The analysis is that the living entity is enwrapped first all with sixteen wrappers, ṣoḍaśa-kalam. What are those? Now, ten senses: five working senses and five knowledge-gathering senses. We are experience... We are perceiving by using our five knowledge-gathering senses, just like eyes, ear, cakṣu, karṇa, smell, nose. Cakṣu, karṇa, nāsikā, jihvā, tongue, touch, hand... In this way we get knowledge experience.
the spirit soul in this material body has so much activities. Now, regarding this body, I have got so many activities. And when the body is finished, is it correct that the spirit soul stops to act? No. It does not stop to act. Because that is the active principle. Because the spirit is there within this body, therefore the body's acting. Now, suppose I am not this body. Then does it mean that the spirit has no activity? So this is now wrong theory. Spirit has various activities, but you do not know. That is illusion. So meditation means to understand oneself, that "I am not this body; I am spirit soul," and farther advancement of that meditation is to know that what are the activities of the spirit soul, and when one is actually engaged in those spiritual activities, that is the perfection of meditation.
Haṁsadūta: So that mind is part of the soul. It's just, it's polluted.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is a symptom of... Mind is the active principle. Without mind, how can you act? The mind is there. But at the present moment, becoming covered by the material energy, everything is contaminated. Mind is contaminated, the intelligence is contaminated, the ego is contaminated, I, or self, I am contaminated. Everything is contaminated. When you have got fever, there is pain all over the body. There is temperature all over the body. And when the fever is off, there is no temperature. Similarly, it is the difference of consciousness only. As soon as we take material consciousness, it is to be understood in feverish condition.
Arrival Addresses and Talks
As you have got a body and you, the soul, is the important thing, active principle within this body, similarly this gigantic body, the active principle is there, that is we call from the śāstra Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, the same comparison. But because they are mūḍha, rascal, they cannot understand. No brain. We have no brain, we are all not very intelligent. But we can understand if there is the active principle soul within this body, there must be a Supersoul within this huge structure of body. And that is called God. Mohitaṁ nābhijānāti mām ebhyaḥ param avyayam (BG 7.13). Those who are bewildered, narādhamāḥ. Narādhamāḥ, the lowest of the mankind. These things cannot be understood by the cats and dogs. Their body is constituted in such a way that they cannot think of there is an active principle within the body and there is active principle in this huge gigantic body. The cats and dogs cannot understand, but a human being can understand. And that active principle is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa means all-attractive. As the active principle within this body is all-attractive, this beautiful body of French boys and girls, why? The active principle is there; therefore they are attractive. Many people come to see your city. Why? The active principle is there.
So Kṛṣṇa means the active principle of everything. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā,
- ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo
- mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate
- iti matvā bhajante māṁ
- budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ
- (BG 10.8)
The active principle is everything. From His energy, material energy, this huge gigantic material man..., cosmic manifestation is there, from His energy. And we are also His energy. Bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca (BG 7.4). The five material elements are also Kṛṣṇa's energy, and we living entities, we are also.
Every one of them is thinking on the bodily platform: "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am German," and "I am Englishman," like that. Therefore there is no solution because the basic principle is wrong. Unless we understand what is the wrong on the active principle of the body, the problems cannot be solved, just like if you cannot diagnose the disease, simply by symptomatic treatment you cannot make the man healthy. That is not possible.
General Lectures
Just like raso 'ham apsu kaunteya, "I am the taste of the water." Water you have to drink. Just like I drank just a minute before and quenched my thirst. But that quenching active principle is Kṛṣṇa. So we can realize Kṛṣṇa every time we'll drink water. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Śās..., prabhāsmi śaśi sūryayoḥ. Kṛṣṇa is the sunshine, Kṛṣṇa is the moonshine. Kṛṣṇa is the fragrance of the flower. As soon as you take a flower and smell it, the fragrance is Kṛṣṇa. In this way, every step we can understand Kṛṣṇa.
This is knowledge, beginning of knowledge. Try to understand about the soul, the part of Parabrahman, the spark of Parabrahman, the spirit soul. That is within this body. So "You are lamenting on this body, but you have no information of the active principle within the body." So nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ: "So this is not the statement of a paṇḍita." In other way He... He is friend. Or as śiṣya..., that "This kind of things never happens in the case of a paṇḍita." That means, "My dear friend, you are apaṇḍita. You are not paṇḍita." One who does not know about the spirit soul, he is not a paṇḍita.
Philosophy Discussions
Śyāmasundara: According to you, you say it's his desire.
Karandhara: But the selective, active principle...
Prabhupāda: But the fact is that you do not find anyone that one can breathe within the water.
Śyāmasundara: No. That's only an example.
Prabhupāda: But you should give example which is proper.
Prabhupāda: Solid... We should not be misled simply by a solid mass. The principle which is changing, it may not be a very big solid mass, but it is the active principle which is changing. It doesn't matter it is not like a big hill or mountain, but that is the active principle which is changing.
Śyāmasundara: He says that this no-thingness, nothingness...
Prabhupāda: No. The idea... Actually he has the quality of becoming massive. The same thing we can... Just like the active principle which develops the body within the womb. He may not accept it as soul or something, but without that active principle, simply cohabit of the male and female and combination of secretion does not develop the body. The active principle must be there. So as soon as the active principle is there, the combination of male and female secretion acts, and it develops into body, mass body. You can develop into an ant or you can develop into a big hill. That is the difference. Just like a seed, a small seed, that is active principle. So from that seed a big tree develops. So this existence of the big tree depends on that small seed. That is the active principle. Why it is nothing? That is nonsense.
Prabhupāda: It will change. That's all right. I am here, I may be next moment down. But I am the same, either here or down, and therefore I am important, and the active principle is important. The changing existence has no importance. At one time the external feature of the active principle may be a mountain, and next, the external feature of the active principle may be a small ant, but the active principle which is becoming sometimes mountain life and the ant life, that is important.
Prabhupāda: As soon as you say freedom, it is freedom of some living being. Matter has no freedom. So as soon as you speak of freedom, that freedom must be a living being. A huge mountain, dead mountain, or any dead body, it has no freedom. It is lying down. You keep it with some chemical process and the body will remain lying down, just like the Egyptian mummies, there are so many. So it has lost its freedom because the active principle is not there. As soon as you say of freedom, the freedom is only applicable to a living being, not to the matter. Matter has no freedom.
Prabhupāda: Death means change, another body. But the active principle on which the body is standing, he does not die. The changing is accepted as death, changing. Just like I am in this apartment; I change this apartment, I go three miles away. So that does not mean I am dead. Similarly, the active principle which is changing when he takes another, because he cannot see where he has gone, we say it is death. But a sane man who knows that "Although I cannot see him, he must have taken another apartment..." That's all.
Because the soul is active, and the active soul is within the body; therefore we find these bodily activities. The body itself is not active; the soul is active. So when he gives up this bodily concept of life, how his activities will be stopped? But this poor fund of knowledge, Māyāvāda, they cannot understand. The active principle is the soul. So, so long the active principle is within the body, the body is active, and the active principle gone, the body is lump of matter. So even one is liberated from this lump of matter, he must remain active.
| Page Title: | Active principle (Lectures) |
| Compiler: | Labangalatika, Govinda5677, Rishab, Gopinath |
| Created: | 10 of Mar, 2010 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=21, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 21 |