View source for Finer than the ether is the mind, and finer than the mind is intelligence, ego. And finer than the intelligence and ego is the soul. So how you can see soul? You cannot see even the material things, as soon it becomes finer. How you can see the soul?

<div id="compilation">
<div id="facts">
{{terms|"Finer than the ether is the mind, and finer than the mind is intelligence, ego. And finer than the intelligence and ego is the soul. So how you can see soul? You cannot see even the material things, as soon it becomes finer. How you can see the soul"}}
{{notes|}}
{{compiler|MadhuGopaldas}}
{{complete|ALL}}
{{first|10May13}}
{{last|10May13}}
{{totals_by_section|BG=0|SB=0|CC=0|OB=0|Lec=1|Con=0|Let=0}}
{{total|1}}
{{toc right}}
[[Category:Fine]]
[[Category:Than]]
[[Category:Ether]]
[[Category:Mind and Intelligence]]
[[Category:Mind, Intelligence and Ego]]
[[Category:False Ego and Intelligence]]
[[Category:Than]]
[[Category:Souls]]
[[Category:You Can]]
[[Category:Can See]]
[[Category:You Cannot]]
[[Category:Cannot See]]
[[Category:Material Things]]
[[Category:As Soon As]]
[[Category:Becomes]]
[[Category:Questions Posed by Srila Prabhupada]]
[[Category:Prabhupada Speaks - Lectures, 1966 - 1977]]
[[Category:Prabhupada Speaks - Lectures, 1975]]
[[Category:Prabhupada Speaks - Lectures, Bhagavad-gita As It Is]]
[[Category:Prabhupada Speaks - in Africa, Kenya - Nairobi]]
</div>
<div id="Lectures" class="section" sec_index="4" parent="compilation" text="Lectures"><h2>Lectures</h2>
</div>
<div id="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" class="sub_section" sec_index="0" parent="Lectures" text="Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures"><h3>Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures</h3>
</div>
<div id="LectureonBG74NairobiOctober311975_0" class="quote" parent="Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is_Lectures" book="Lec" index="268" link="Lecture on BG 7.4 -- Nairobi, October 31, 1975" link_text="Lecture on BG 7.4 -- Nairobi, October 31, 1975">
<div class="heading">Finer than the ether is the mind, and finer than the mind is intelligence, ego. And finer than the intelligence and ego is the soul. So how you can see soul? You cannot see even the material things, as soon it becomes finer. How you can see the soul? They cannot see, but soul is there. Therefore when the soul departs from the body we see the bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhi-ahaṅkāra... (BG 7.4).
</div>
<mp3player>https://s3.amazonaws.com/vanipedia/clip/751031BG.NAI_clip2.mp3</mp3player> 
<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Lecture on BG 7.4 -- Nairobi, October 31, 1975|Lecture on BG 7.4 -- Nairobi, October 31, 1975]]: </span><div style="display: inline;" class="text"><p style="display: inline;">In the previous verse it has been explained,</p>
:manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu
:kaścid yatati siddhaye
:yatatām api siddhānāṁ
:kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ
:([[Vanisource:BG 7.3 (1972)|BG 7.3]])
<p>Out of many millions and millions of persons, actually they are serious to understand, "What is the aim of life? What is God? What is my relation..." Nobody is interested. Just like... Sa eva go-kharaḥ ([[Vanisource:SB 10.84.13|SB 10.84.13]]). Everyone is interested with this bodily conception of life like cats and dogs. This is the position. Not only now, always, this is the material condition. But somebody, manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu, out of millions, one tries to understand, to make his life perfect. And out of such perfection...</p>
<p>Perfection means to understand his real constitutional position, that he is not this material body; he is spirit soul, Brahman. That is perfection, perfection of knowledge, brahma-jñāna.</p>
:brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā
:na śocati na kāṅkṣati
:samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu
:mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām
:([[Vanisource:BG 18.54 (1972)|BG 18.54]])
<p>After brahma-jñāna... Sometimes the Māyāvādī philosophers they say, "By bhakti one gains brahma-jñāna, and one becomes liberated, merged into Brahman," and so on, so on, because they say, "Bhakti is meant for the less intelligent class of men." Their accusation is like that. No. That is not the fact. Bhakti, kaniṣṭha-adhikārī, in the lower stage of bhakti, that is also higher than the Māyāvāda philosophy. In the lower status of bhakti means that arcā-vigraha, anyone, any person, he does not clearly understand what is God, but by the instruction of the spiritual master one is engaged in the service of the Lord. This morning we have explained the Deity worship. Here is God. Here is God, factually, but He has no realization that here is God. That is called kaniṣṭha-adhikārī, in the lower stage of devotional service. But if he accepts even theoretically that "Here is God," then he becomes more advanced than the Māyāvādī who are thinking of God without head and leg, nirviśeṣa-vādī.</p>
<p>So therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that one who has undergone the training by a Māyāvādī philosopher, his life is finished. Māyāvādi-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa ([[Vanisource:CC Madhya 6.169|CC Madhya 6.169]]). He says that he is finished because he'll never be able to advance in devotional service, and that is the ultimate goal of life. Mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā ([[Vanisource:BG 18.54 (1972)|BG 18.54]]). After realization of Brahman, when he is actually on the Brahman platform, then the symptom is na śocati na kāṅkṣati: he has no more lamentation and no more aspiration. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. Then he can see everyone one equal level. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. Because he does not see the outward body, he does not see that "Here is a Hindu, here is a Muslim, here is a Christian, here is an Indian, here is American, here is black and here is white." No. He sees within, within, introspection. He sees that within,</p>
:vidyā-vinaya-sampanne
:brāhmaṇe gavi hastini
:śuni caiva śva-pāke ca
:paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ
:([[Vanisource:BG 5.18 (1972)|BG 5.18]])
<p>That is samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. Not artificially you can make samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu. Artificially it is not possible. There will be some distinction, must be, bodily. So therefore, on the bodily platform, they are trying to become united. The United Nation is trying for the last forty years, but there is no unity; it is not possible—on the bodily platform. But on the spiritual platform there is unity. Just like in our movement, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you'll find all different nations, all different colors, all different religion, all different sex. They are all united in chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is united nation. There is no distinction. And this is not artificial, this is practical. So the people are trying to become united, oneness. That is not possible on the bodily platform. So this bodily concept of life can be vanquished, can be, I mean to say, rejected on the spiritual platform.</p>
<p>So here Kṛṣṇa says that first of all our material conception of life... We are in the material world. We see everything as stone and wood and earth and water and fire and everything. We have got the capacity to see all these things. Here Kṛṣṇa says that this bhūmi, this earth; āpa, this water; anala, this fire; vāyu, air; kham, the sky, ether; mana, mind... That is still subtle. Up to ether, you can see, but the mind, which is still finer than the ether, mana, that you cannot see. Mind, everyone knows you have got mind, I have got mind, but you cannot see the mind, neither I can see your mind. Here is the subtle. First gross: bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ, up to ether. Ether also we cannot see, but we can understand here is ether by (claps) sound. As soon as there is sound, this is the understanding of ether. Ether, vāyu, you can touch, but you cannot see. Then fire, you can see. And then water, you can see also, and then earth—gross. From the finer, we are coming to the gross. Begins from the finer.</p>
<p>So finer than the ether is the mind, and finer than the mind is intelligence, ego. And finer than the intelligence and ego is the soul. So how you can see soul? You cannot see even the material things, as soon it becomes finer. How you can see the soul? They cannot see, but soul is there. Therefore when the soul departs from the body we see the bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhi-ahaṅkāra... ([[Vanisource:BG 7.4 (1972)|BG 7.4]]). Buddhi-ahaṅkāra The man, the dead man, is lying. The gross thing we are seeing, but the mind, intelligence, ego, which is carrying that soul, that we do not see. How transmigration of the soul takes place, that we have no knowledge, poor fund of knowledge. We can simply think gross. Jaḍa-darśana. It is called jaḍa-darśana. Even there is no sūkṣma-darśana. Although there is mind, but we cannot see. Then how you can see the soul?</p>
<p>So this is the defect of modern education. So what is beyond your perception, sense perception, that you have to hear. There are two kinds of knowledges: by practical experience, direct perception, and by hearing from authority, aitihya. According to Vedic system, there are three kinds of evidences: direct, and pratyakṣa... Pratyakṣa means direct. And then aitihya and śruti. Śruti. Śruti means hearing from the authority. Just like here we see that there is mind. Everyone knows mind, but it is confirmed by the śāstra because we are hearing from Kṛṣṇa which is called śruti. Similarly, when Kṛṣṇa says in the Second Chapter,</p>
:dehino 'smin yathā dehe
:kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
:tathā dehāntara-prāptir
:dhīras tatra na muhyati
:([[Vanisource:BG 2.13 (1972)|BG 2.13]])
<p>Asmin dehe, "Within this body, there is the proprietor of the body," that you have to learn by hearing. If you want to see immediately, "Let me see where it is in the...," oh, your so-called scientific research cannot help you. You have to learn it simply by hearing from the authority. This is called śruti, śruti-pramāṇa, śruti-pramāṇa, evidence from śruti.</p>
<p>So the Vedic knowledge is called śruti. You have to learn things beyond your perception simply by hearing from the authorities. So Vedic knowledge is the authority. Why we accept Vedas as authority? Because there is the perfect knowledge. I have discussed so many times the authority of the Vedas, accepting cow dung as pure although animal stool is impure. But Vedas accept that cow dung is pure; we accept it. Cow dung is pure. This is called śruti-pramāṇa. Śruti-pramāṇa means the real knowledge, perfect knowledge, is coming from the supreme perfect, Kṛṣṇa.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>