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Does the table have a jiva soul?

Conversations and Morning Walks

1971 Conversations and Morning Walks

A particular jīva soul was in that body. Then it is also proved that every jīva soul is individual. Although they are living combinedly, everything is individual. But that one jīva soul was prominent. He was visible. Others were in dormant condition. This proves that every individual soul is separate from the other; still, they can remain together. Just like the sunshine, they create... a small shining particles, combined together, molecules. So everything is combined spirit particles. Everything. Sarvam idam khalv idaṁ brahma. Everything is Brahman. But when they are covered, that is called material exis...
Room Conversation -- August 17, 1971, London:

Prabhupāda: They will be visible in due course of time.

Śyāmasundara: What he was telling me was that the table itself has a jīva soul, that the table is a person.

Prabhupāda: No no.

Revatīnandana: So that's what I was asking. 'Cause I said, "Does the table have a jīva soul?" I was trying to ask that question.

Śyāmasundara:That's what completely threw me off. I thought, "Oh..." That means the table is a person, this is a person, this is a...

Prabhupāda: A particular jīva soul was in that body. Then it is also proved that every jīva soul is individual. Although they are living combinedly, everything is individual.

Revatīnandana: Well, doesn't... That's all right then. Now the...

Prabhupāda: But that one jīva soul was prominent. He was visible. Others were in dormant condition. This proves that every individual soul is separate from the other; still, they can remain together. Just like the sunshine, they create... a small shining particles, combined together, molecules. So everything is combined spirit particles.

Haṁsadūta: Everything that we see around us, everything.

Prabhupāda: Everything. Sarvam idam khalv idaṁ brahma. Everything is Brahman. But when they are covered, that is called material exis...

Śyāmasundara: Each jīva is...

Prabhupāda: Just as sunshine is not covered, it is called cloudy. But this light, whatever light you are seeing, that is also sunshine. That is not different from the sunshine. And above the cloud, there is bright. So matter means when it is covered by something, it is matter. That covering is unconsciousness. That covering is also created of the sunshine, by the same energy. And then, by the same energy it is dissipated also. So the conclusion is living being, when it is covered by ignorance, that is material.

Revatīnandana: But this, the body itself is sort of a manifestation of ignorance.

Prabhupāda: Yes. When the ignorance is gone, then you have got spiritual body.

Revatīnandana: Then I know that I am not this body. Then I know that I am not this body. Now, the question is...

Prabhupāda: Then I am not ignorance.

Revatīnandana: Then there is some distinction, between the nature of the soul and the nature of the body.

Prabhupāda: That distinction is inconceivable. You cannot make clear distinction. Therefore it is called acintya.

Revatīnandana: The distinction between the soul and the body?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Everything. We distinguish matter and spirit. That distinction is inconceivable by you. You cannot make a clear distinction. Therefore it is called acintya bhedābheda tattva, inconceivable one and different, simultaneously.

Śyāmasundara: When you said that, once before, that the cells, all the cells in our body, each one is a living entity with a small body. Each one of those living entities covers itself with ignorance?

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Śyāmasundara: It takes a small body made out of matter.

Prabhupāda: But that body means ignorance. Śarīra avidyā jāla. This body is nothing but a network of ignorance.

Śyāmasundara: So then myself, I organize all these smaller cells. I organize them into my big body.

Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, when you are covered, that is material. You try to understand. Covered by something. The same example. The sunshine is there, it is covered now. That covering also creation of the sunshine. So therefore the covering has no separate existence. Originally, the sunshine is everything. Is it clear?

Śyāmasundara: So how do I create matter that is my body? How do I create...

Prabhupāda: You are creating. You are creating actually.

Śyāmasundara: By eating and...

Page Title:Does the table have a jiva soul?
Compiler:Mangalavati, MadhuGopaldas, Rishab
Created:16 of May, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=1, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1