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Eternal soul

Bhagavad-gita As It Is

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 2.1, Purport:

Material compassion, lamentation and tears are all signs of ignorance of the real self. Compassion for the eternal soul is self-realization. The word "Madhusūdana" is significant in this verse. Lord Kṛṣṇa killed the demon Madhu, and now Arjuna wanted Kṛṣṇa to kill the demon of misunderstanding that had overtaken him in the discharge of his duty. No one knows where compassion should be applied. Compassion for the dress of a drowning man is senseless. A man fallen in the ocean of nescience cannot be saved simply by rescuing his outward dress—the gross material body. One who does not know this and laments for the outward dress is called a śūdra, or one who laments unnecessarily. Arjuna was a kṣatriya, and this conduct was not expected from him. Lord Kṛṣṇa, however, can dissipate the lamentation of the ignorant man, and for this purpose the Bhagavad-gītā was sung by Him. This chapter instructs us in self-realization by an analytical study of the material body and the spirit soul, as explained by the supreme authority, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. This realization is possible when one works without attachment to fruitive results and is situated in the fixed conception of the real self.

BG 2.28, Purport:

And if we accept the Vedic conclusion as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā that these material bodies are perishable in due course of time (antavanta ime dehāḥ) but that the soul is eternal (nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ), then we must remember always that the body is like a dress; therefore why lament the changing of a dress? The material body has no factual existence in relation to the eternal soul. It is something like a dream. In a dream we may think of flying in the sky, or sitting on a chariot as a king, but when we wake up we can see that we are neither in the sky nor seated on the chariot. The Vedic wisdom encourages self-realization on the basis of the nonexistence of the material body. Therefore, in either case, whether one believes in the existence of the soul or one does not believe in the existence of the soul, there is no cause for lamentation for loss of the body.

BG 2.40, Purport:

"If someone gives up his occupational duties and works in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and then falls down on account of not completing his work, what loss is there on his part? And what can one gain if one performs his material activities perfectly?" Or, as the Christians say, "What profiteth a man if he gain the whole world yet suffers the loss of his eternal soul?"

Material activities and their results end with the body. But work in Kṛṣṇa consciousness carries a person again to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even after the loss of the body. At least one is sure to have a chance in the next life of being born again as a human being, either in the family of a great cultured brāhmaṇa or in a rich aristocratic family that will give one a further chance for elevation. That is the unique quality of work done in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 1

SB 1.15.41, Purport:

First he concentrated all the actions of the senses and amalgamated them into the mind, or in other words he turned his mind toward the transcendental service of the Lord. He prayed that since all material activities are performed by the mind in terms of actions and reactions of the material senses, and since he was going back to Godhead, the mind would wind up its material activities and be turned towards the transcendental service to the Lord. There was no longer a need for material activities. Actually the activities of the mind cannot be stopped, for they are the reflection of the eternal soul, but the quality of the activities can be changed from matter to the transcendental service of the Lord.

SB Canto 7

SB 7.2.37, Purport:

If we accept the Vedic conclusion as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (antavanta ime dehāḥ) that these material bodies are perishable in due course of time (nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ) but that the soul is eternal, then we must remember always that the body is like a dress; therefore why lament the changing of a dress? The material body has no factual existence in relation to the eternal soul. It is something like a dream. In a dream we may think of flying in the sky or sitting on a chariot as a king, but when we wake up we can see that we are neither in the sky nor seated on the chariot. The Vedic wisdom encourages self-realization on the basis of the nonexistence of the material body. Therefore, in either case, whether one believes in the existence of the soul or one does not believe in the existence of the soul, there is no cause for lamentation for loss of the body.

SB 7.5.5, Purport:

The Vedic injunction is asato mā jyotir gama: everyone should give up the platform of temporary existence and approach the eternal platform. The soul is eternal, and topics concerning the eternal soul are actually knowledge. Elsewhere it is said, apaśyatām ātma-tattvaṁ gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām: (SB 2.1.2) those who are attached to the bodily conception of life and who thus stick to life as a gṛhastha, or householder, on the platform of material sense enjoyment, cannot see the welfare of the eternal soul. Prahlāda Mahārāja confirmed this by saying that if one wants success in life, he should immediately understand from the right sources what his self-interest is and how he should mold his life in spiritual consciousness. One should understand himself to be part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa and thus completely take shelter of His lotus feet for guaranteed spiritual success.

SB 7.7.27, Purport:

The unwanted condition of temporary life is called ignorance. One can very easily understand that the material body is temporary, for it is generated at a certain date and ends at a certain date, after undergoing the six kinds of change, namely birth, death, growth, maintenance, transformation and dwindling. This condition of the eternal soul is due to his ignorance, and although it is temporary, it is unwanted. Because of ignorance one is put into temporary bodies one after another. The spirit soul, however, does not need to enter such temporary bodies. He does so only due to his ignorance or his forgetfulness of Kṛṣṇa.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 11.3.38, Translation:

Brahman, the eternal soul, was never born and will never die, nor does it grow or decay. That spiritual soul is actually the knower of the youth, middle age and death of the material body. Thus the soul can be understood to be pure consciousness, existing everywhere at all times and never being destroyed. Just as the life air within the body, although one, becomes manifest as many in contact with the various material senses, the one soul appears to assume various material designations in contact with the material body.

SB 11.16.26, Translation:

Among religious principles I am renunciation, and of all types of security I am consciousness of the eternal soul within. Of secrets I am pleasant speech and silence, and among sexual pairs I am Brahmā.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 8.15, Purport:

Everyone is engaged in humanitarian activities on the basis of the body, but from the Bhagavad-gītā (2.18) we understand, anta-vanta ime dehā nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ: "The material body is ultimately subject to destruction, whereas the spiritual soul is eternal." Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's philanthropic activities are performed in connection with the eternal soul. However one tries to benefit the body, it will be destroyed, and one will have to accept another body according to his present activities. If one does not, therefore, understand this science of transmigration but considers the body to be all in all, his intelligence is not very advanced.

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Teachings of Lord Caitanya

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 31:

The loving affairs between Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs in Vṛndāvana are also transcendental. They appear as ordinary lusty affairs of this material world, but there is a gulf of difference. In the material world there may be the temporary awakening of lust, but it disappears after so-called satisfaction. In the spiritual world the love between the gopīs and Kṛṣṇa is constantly increasing. That is the difference between transcendental love and material lust. The lust, or so-called love, arising out of this body is as temporary as the body itself, but the love arising from the eternal soul in the spiritual world is on the spiritual platform, and that love is also eternal. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is addressed as the ever green Cupid.

Renunciation Through Wisdom

Renunciation Through Wisdom 1.9:

By contrast, when the fruitive worker dies, whatever wealth and education he has acquired, along with the endeavor that went into acquiring them, all become null and void. As for the pure karma-yogī, or devotee, his devotional activities are all beyond the level of mind and body. They are related to the soul and the Supreme Soul, and hence his activities become the wealth of his pure, eternal soul. Just as the soul is never destroyed with the disintegration of the body, so this wealth of devotional service is never devalued. Thus the Bhagavad-gītā says that the karma-yogī always works for the benefit and elevation of his soul, and that this endeavor and its results remain permanent spiritual assets in this life and the next.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.7:

The material body, made up of material ingredients such as earth, water, fire, and air, is mortal. Similarly, because this material universe is an amalgam of earth, water, fire, air, etc., it is also transitory. But the spirit soul (which, incidently, has never been duplicated in the laboratory despite repeated efforts) is imperishable, as is its natural, eternal home—the kingdom of God. The process that takes the eternal soul to his eternal home is called sanātana-dharma, or "the eternal religion."

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 2.14 -- Germany, June 21, 1974:

By nature's way you will get another body. Because you want to enjoy, you have come here in this material world. There is no question of asking. Everyone knows that "I am in this material world. I must enjoy to the fullest extent." One who is unaware of the fact that "I am going to take another life," he is thinking, "This is a combination of this matter—earth, water, air, fire. So when it will be broken, then everything will be finished. So so long I have got this opportunity, let me enjoy to the fullest extent." This is called material mentality, atheist, atheist, who does not know that we are eternal soul, we are changing body only. The atheists think that after finishing...

Lecture on BG 2.15 -- London, August 21, 1973:

Haṁsadūta: "What profiteth a man who gains the whole world but he loses his eternal soul?"

Prabhupāda: That's it. That should be the aim. That we are eternal soul. We must be again replaced in our eternal life. But if you forget this mission of life and simply become engaged how to become happy in this material world, how to avoid distress and how to get happiness... People are engaged in that way. Simply trying to get happiness and avoid distress, and forgetting that he has got a mission of life, to realize his self and go back to home, back to Godhead. This is the defect of the modern civilization.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 1.2.4 -- Rome, May 28, 1974:

So the real business is saṁsāriṇām, saṁsāriṇām, adhyātma-dīpam atititīrṣatām. One should come to senses, that "I am eternal. I hear from Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that na hanyate śarīre, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20), I am not finished after my body's finished. Then, if I am not finished, where do I go? Where I remain?" This is intelligence. But they have no information that the eternal soul, na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). They are thinking, "All of a sudden my this body has developed, and we have got good senses. Let us enjoy the senses. There is no life. It is finished." Big, big professor in Russia, that Professor Kotofsky, he told me, "Swamiji, after finishing this body, there is anything... Everything is finished." That is the basic principle of modern civilization, that "There is no life after death, and whatever senses we have got, let us enjoy it."

Lecture on SB 5.5.1 -- London, August 30, 1971:

This life is meant for tapasya, austerity. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā. Why? Why we should accept austerity, penance? So He says that tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvaṁ śuddhyet (SB 5.5.1). Sattvam. Your existence. You are existing. Now your existence is not pure because we, all living entities, we are eternal soul, spirit soul. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). The soul is never annihilated or destroyed after the annihilation of this body. Now, throughout the whole world we are traveling. There is not a single institution, neither any department of knowledge in the university, to understand that "After destruction of this body I am not destroyed. I exist."

Lecture on SB 7.7.22-26 -- San Francisco, March 10, 1967:

Now, our point is: never mind what kind of body we are getting next, but I am existing. Whether I am intelligently working during the time when I am awake, or whether I am working under dreams, or whether I am being transferred to another body—I am having sound sleep under chloroform—I am the same. I am the same. I am that eternal soul. This is self-realization. So under all circumstances, either this body or that body, either sleeping or working or under sound sleep, any condition, I am there. This is my identification.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.101-104 -- Bombay, November 3, 1975:

So we change body; otherwise we are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). This is the information we get, that after this destruction of this material body, the eternal soul is never destroyed. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). We get another body. The same example: the child gets the body of a boy, boy gets the... Therefore we are eternal. And what is God? He is also eternal. So nityo nityanānām. We are eternal, we are many, and God is also eternal, but He is one. He is singular number.

General Lectures

Lecture -- San Francisco, April 2, 1968:

So our problems of life, as it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, is to solve these four things: no more birth... Because we are... Always remember that we are all eternal. Just like in this body, beginning from my mother's womb up to this old age, I am the same eternal soul, but my body is changing. So after changing this body also, I shall remain the same. Simply I shall have another body. This plain truth, there is no difficulty to understand. Now if I am eternal... If I am eternal means no death, no birth, no disease, no old age. That is eternal. So if I am eternal, whether it is possible to get an eternal body? Or eternal happiness? That is the problem of human society.

Pandal Lecture -- Bombay, April 11, 1971:

Just like in your childhood you were in a body which was called baby or child. Now I am old man. I can remember in my childhood I was so small, but that body is gone. Now I have got a different body. But I am there. This is the understanding. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). By changing body, the eternal soul does not, I mean to say, annihilate. Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre. This understanding is called Brahman understanding, that "I am eternal. I have no birth; I have no death. The birth and death is pertaining to this body. I am changing body from one body to another." This is called brahma-bhūtaḥ understanding. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi, that is.

Lecture at Indo-American Society 'East and West' -- Calcutta, January 31, 1973:

It is not working. (break) ...eternal soul is there in the Bhagavad-gītā that... That I have already explained. Asmin dehe, in this body there is the proprietor of the body. This is conception of soul. Just like whenever we see some apartment or house we can understand that there is a resident or proprietor of this house. Similarly, we can understand, this body, there is some proprietor within this body. Therefore the body is working. If we see one house, nicely cleansed, there is light and everything is in order, we can understand there is resident. Similarly, when the proprietor of the body is there, the body is healthy... (break) ...That is the conception of existence of the soul. Nobody can deny it.

Lecture -- London, August 26, 1973:

Unfortunately we have given up the real problem of life. We are very much embarrassed with the temporary existence of this body, say for some years, fifty years or hundred years. But as we are eternal, we are not taking care of the eternal soul, what is its need. But when a person is developed, his spiritual consciousness automatically develops. At that time, he is no more satisfied with the comforts of the material body. In the Western country, that feeling is now very prominent because there are so many confused, frustrated young men who are known as hippies. They are not satisfied with the ways of life as their fathers and grandfathers are living. They are protesting rather. That means there is spiritual starvation. Therefore we see also as soon as some swami or yogi comes from India, they flock together.

Lecture -- Hong Kong, January 31, 1974:

No more material body means no more death. The death takes place on account of this material body; otherwise the living entity, nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre (BG 2.20). Living entity is eternal; he does not die, he does not take birth. Na jāyate mriyate vā kadācit. Eternal. Then why he dies? That death is of this material body, not of the eternal soul. So although we are eternal, nityaḥ śāśvataḥ, still we have to accept different types of body. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (BG 8.19). Dehino'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā (BG 2.13). So this transmigration of the soul from one body to another is not very good business. Who wants to die? Nobody wants to die. But he has to die. He must die. There is no question of he likes or not likes. Nobody wants to take birth, again enter into the womb of mother.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Graham Hill Former World Champion Race Car Driver -- London, August 26, 1973:

Prabhupāda: Yes, in the past. You forgot, but in the past you had life. Just like in the past I was young man. That's a fact. Similarly, but that young body is no more existing. Similarly, I had a past life but I have forgotten. That is the... Forgetfulness is our nature. Death means forgetting what was your first, past life. That is by nature you become forgetful because if you remember our past life and compare with this life... Suppose one was very rich man and if he becomes a poor, a cat and dog, then if he remembers, then it is very unbearable for him. Therefore nature helps him to forget. Forget. Otherwise he cannot do it. But the real problem is that we are eternal soul, we are changing our body one after another, birth and death. Apart from worldly happiness and distress, this birth and death, that is not very good process.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- June 20, 1974, Germany:

Prabhupāda: Yes. (aside:) Just from distance, not so near. Duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). Duḥkha. Duḥkha means suffering. Ālayam. Ālayam means place. So the creator of this universe, the Supreme Lord, He is saying, "This is a place for suffering." And it is called Mṛtyu-loka, "For death, the planets for dying." That means death is unnatural to the eternal soul. But anywhere you live within this material world, you will die. That is material world. Either you live as a Brahmā or live as a small insect, ant, you must die. Bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate: (BG 8.19) death and again take birth, death and again take birth. But these rascals, they do not know: "This is natural, that's all."

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Adi-kesava Swami -- February 19, 1977, Mayapura:

Prabhupāda: To be imprisoned with this material body—the greatest suffering... You are trying to mitigate suffering, temporary, this way and that, but you do not know how." That you can show from the Bhagavad... Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānu... (BG 13.9). "This is real suffering. Why the eternal soul should be subjected to birth, death, old age and disease? We are seeing to this. You are thinking that 'If I can place myself in a very high skyscraper building and motorcar,' your business is finished. We are not so fool. We know that 'Any moment, I shall be kicked out of the skyscraper building and motorcar by the laws of nature.' " That's a fact. But fools cannot understand. They think, "This is my permanent..." That is not permanent, but you are permanent. "Where is my permanent situation?"—we are seeking after that. So we are not so fools. We are taking that "I am permanent. Why I should be encapped or entangled in this nonpermanent." This is our philosophy.

Page Title:Eternal soul
Compiler:Serene, Matea, Visnu Murti
Created:07 of Dec, 2008
Totals by Section:BG=3, SB=6, CC=1, OB=3, Lec=11, Con=3, Let=0
No. of Quotes:27