Forgotten souls

Expressions researched:
"forgotten souls" |"forgotten soul"

SB Canto 1

The fallen and forgotten souls are detached from the transcendental loving service of the Lord. The living entities are parts and parcels of the Lord, and they are eternally servitors of the Lord.

SB 1.5.21, Purport: Śrīla Vyāsadeva is the empowered plenary portion incarnation of the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa. He descended by his causeless mercy to deliver the fallen souls in the material world. The fallen and forgotten souls are detached from the transcendental loving service of the Lord. The living entities are parts and parcels of the Lord, and they are eternally servitors of the Lord. All the Vedic literatures, therefore, are put into systematic order for the benefit of the fallen souls, and it is the duty of the fallen souls to take advantage of such literatures and be freed from the bondage of material existence. Although formally Śrīla Nārada Ṛṣi is his spiritual master, Śrīla Vyāsadeva is not at all dependent on a spiritual master because in essence he is the spiritual master of everyone else. But because he is doing the work of an ācārya, he has taught us by his own conduct that one must have a spiritual master, even though he be God Himself. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Lord Śrī Rāma and Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, all incarnations of Godhead, accepted formal spiritual masters, although by Their transcendental nature They were cognizant of all knowledge. In order to direct people in general to the lotus feet of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, He Himself in the incarnation of Vyāsadeva is delineating the transcendental pastimes of the Lord.

By such endeavor, even the most forgotten soul is roused up to the sense of spiritual life.

SB 1.5.24, Purport: As such, vedānta-vādīs, or the followers of the Vedānta, indicate the pure devotees of the Personality of Godhead. Such vedānta-vādīs, or the bhakti-vedāntas, are impartial in distributing the transcendental knowledge of devotional service. To them no one is enemy or friend; no one is educated or uneducated. No one is especially favorable, and no one is unfavorable. The bhakti-vedāntas see that the people in general are wasting time in false sensuous things. Their business is to get the ignorant mass of people to reestablish their lost relationship with the Personality of Godhead. By such endeavor, even the most forgotten soul is roused up to the sense of spiritual life, and thus being initiated by the bhakti-vedāntas, the people in general gradually progress on the path of transcendental realization.

The external energy is aware that the Lord does not desire the living entity to be illusioned, but still she accepts a thankless task of keeping the forgotten soul under illusion by her bewildering influence.

SB 1.7.5, Purport: The present conditional state is due to the influence of the external energy, which means that the illusory energy takes the initiative while the Supreme Lord is aloof. The Lord does not desire that a living being be illusioned by external energy. The external energy is aware of this fact, but still she accepts a thankless task of keeping the forgotten soul under illusion by her bewildering influence. The Lord does not interfere with the task of the illusory energy because such performances of the illusory energy are also necessary for reformation of the conditioned soul. An affectionate father does not like his children to be chastised by another agent, yet he puts his disobedient children under the custody of a severe man just to bring them to order.

A pure devotee cuts off the limited ties of affection for his family and widens his activities of devotional service for all forgotten souls.

SB 1.8.41, Purport: Kṛṣṇa was equally related to both the families. Both the families required the Lord's help because both were dependent devotees of the Lord. Śrīmatī Kuntīdevī wished Śrī Kṛṣṇa to remain with her sons the Pāṇḍavas, but by His doing so her paternal house would be bereft of the benefit. All these partialities troubled the mind of Kuntī, and therefore she desired to cut off the affectionate tie. A pure devotee cuts off the limited ties of affection for his family and widens his activities of devotional service for all forgotten souls. The typical example is the band of six Gosvāmīs, who followed the path of Lord Caitanya. All of them belonged to the most enlightened and cultured rich families of the higher castes, but for the benefit of the mass of population they left their comfortable homes and became mendicants.

SB Canto 3

This sort of punishment is inflicted upon the forgotten soul by Yamarāja.

SB 3.30.20, Purport: The process of punishment is explained in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Formerly the king's men would take a criminal in a boat in the middle of the river. They would dunk him by grasping a bunch of his hair and thrusting him completely underwater, and when he was almost suffocated, the king's constables would take him out of the water and allow him to breathe for some time, and then they would again dunk him in the water to suffocate. This sort of punishment is inflicted upon the forgotten soul by Yamarāja, as will be described in the following verses.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Because the nature wants to help us because we are now forgotten souls.

Lecture on BG 4.2 -- Bombay, March 22, 1974: But the modern civilization, they are busy. Because they are busy for eating, sleeping and mating, they, by the laws of nature, that is also being minimized. I have already explained. Because the nature wants to help us because we are now forgotten souls. We have forgotten God. The animals have also forgotten God. They are thinking they are this body, bodily concept of life. They have no knowledge. But when you come to the, by evolutionary process, come to the human form of life, then it is your duty to inquire about the Supreme Brahman.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

So Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Lord, is always anxious to revive the memory of these forgotten souls, conditioned souls.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.121-124 -- New York, November 25, 1966: He will come to his sense: "Oh, my position is this, and I am suffering in this way." So śāstra-guru-ātma-rūpe āpanāre jānāna. So Kṛṣṇa, or the Supreme Lord, is always anxious to revive the memory of these forgotten souls, conditioned souls. Now, how He revives? He revives in śāstra. Śāstra means scripture. Śāstra, guru, spiritual master. Śāstra, guru, ātma-rūpe. And sometimes He comes Himself or as Paramātmā, or the Supersoul. He is giving you instruction from within as Paramātmā, He's sending you suitable spiritual master so can, you can have instruction without, and the books are, the scriptures are there. So many facilities the Lord has created.

The spiritual master's duty is to lead a person, a forgotten soul, to the right way in terms of the śāstra and scripture.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.121-124 -- New York, November 25, 1966: Teṣāṁ satata-yuktānām. Those... The spiritual master's duty is to lead a person, a forgotten soul, to the right way in terms of the śāstra and scripture, and when he begins sincerely and with love and seriously, then the next stage is that God within, who is sitting within you, He'll dictate, "Yes, you do like this. You do like this." So in every respect the Lord is trying to help us. But we are so much stubborn, we don't like to take advantage of this position. Oh, he says, "Why shall I take all this? I am very happy."

1968 Conversations and Morning Walks

Our business is to give opportunity to all forgotten souls to be engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, today or tomorrow.

Morning Walk at Stow Lake -- March 23, 1968, San Francisco: Prabhupāda: Similarly, the person who has manufactured this machine, when it is employed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness business, he's benefited. Indirectly, we are giving him opportunity, although he does not know it. But his energy is being utilized for Kṛṣṇa. We offer prasādam, the same principle. A man does not know about Kṛṣṇa. But he wants to eat. By eating, he'll be gradually Kṛṣṇa conscious. So you have... Our business is to give opportunity to all forgotten souls to be engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, today or tomorrow. The boys and girls who have come to this society, they have accumulated in that way, knowingly or unknowingly, some Kṛṣṇa conscious qualification, and therefore they have taken this opportunity.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

This material world is created for the forgotten souls.

Room Conversation with Cardinal Danielou -- August 9, 1973, Paris:

Prabhupāda: Therefore in this material world we find almost everyone has forgotten God.

Yogeśvara: (translates)

Cardinal Danielou: (agrees in French)

Prabhupāda: The conclusion is that this material world is created...

Cardinal Danielou: Created...

Prabhupāda: Created for the forgotten souls.

Yogeśvara: (translates)

Cardinal Danielou: Yes.

Prabhupāda: And here the business is to again revive them to God consciousness.

Yogeśvara: (translates)

Cardinal Danielou: Yes.

Prabhupāda: So the process of enlightening the living entities, especially the human being, because in the animal form of life, one cannot be enlightened. Neither the animal can understand what is God.

Cardinal Danielou: Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Prabhupāda: It is only the human being who can understand. If he's trained, then he can come to God consciousness.

Cardinal Danielou: Yes, yes, yes, yes, It is so.

Prabhupāda: So this creation is meant for the forgotten souls to give them a chance for reviving their God consciousness.

Yogeśvara: Is it clear?

Cardinal Danielou: Yes, it is clear. It is very, very clear. Very clear.

Prabhupāda: And for this business, sometimes God personally comes. Sometimes He sends His representative, His son, or His devotee, His servant. This is going on. God wants that these forgotten souls should come back to home, back to Godhead.