
The Science of The Living Entities
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura
The word jiva means “living entity” or “one who has life.” The Supreme Lord has three principal energies, the internal energy, the external energy, and the marginal energy. The jivas belong to the Lord’s marginal energy. The jivas are factual, not false like castles in the air. The jivas are unborn. They are not created, but rather are eternally pres¬ent. Even though the living entities are conscious, they have only a minute amount of consciousness. The Supreme Lord is omni-conscious. Therefore there is a gulf of difference between the jivas and the Supreme Lord. Sri Mahaprabhu explains that the Lord and the jivas are different in that the Lord controls the material energy called Maya while the jivas are controlled by her.
The Lord is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Absolute Truth, whereas the jivas are insignif¬icant parts of the Him. The Lord controls Maya whereas the jivas live under her control. The living entities are by nature Krishna’s eternal servants, and Krishna is their eternal master, controller, protector, and object of service.
It is the eternal function of the jivas to serve Krishna. Caitanya-caritāmṛta states:
jīvera ’svarūpa’ haya——kṛṣṇera ’nitya-dāsa’
kṛṣṇera ’taṭasthā-śakti’ ’bhedābheda-prakāśa’
It is the living entity’s constitutional position to be an eternal servant of Krishna, because he is the marginal energy of Krishna, and His manifestation, simultaneously one with and different from the Lord. (Madhya 20.108)
kṛṣṇa bhuli’ sei jīvaanādi-bahirmukha
ataevaMaya tāre deya saṁsāra-duḥkha
Due to his neglecting Krishna, the living entity has been attracted by the external feature from time immemorial. Therefore, the illusory energy [Maya] gives him all kinds of miseries in his ma¬terial existence. (Madhya 20.117)
sādhu-śāstra-kṛpāya yadi kṛṣṇonmukha haya
sei jīva nistare, māyā tāhāre chāḍaya
If the conditioned soul becomes conscious of Krishna by the mercy of saintly persons, who voluntarily preach scriptural injunctions, the con¬ditioned soul is liberated from the clutches of the illusory energy Maya, who lets him go. (Madhya 20.120)
tāte kṛṣṇa bhaje, kare gurura sevana
Maya-jāla chuṭe, pāya kṛṣṇera caraṇa
In the Krishna conscious state, the living entity engages in devotional service under the direction of the spiritual master. In this way he gets out of the clutches of Maya and takes shelter at the lotus feet of Lord Krishna. (Madhya 22.25).
We are spirit souls, not these bodies and minds. The spirit soul is the body’s proprietor. When an embodied soul gives up his body at death, the body remains behind. The jiva however, is fully spiritual. The mind is the reflection of spirit, and the body a product of dead matter. The mind is part of the subtle body; it is the reflection of ten¬dency toward meddling with the world. The mind is thus not synonymous with the spirit soul. The mind always wanders in the external world and can both accept or reject the gross objects in here as well as provide information about the Absolute Truth. It can inform us that we are spirit, and that we are neither body or mind. We are separate from the body, just as a house and its proprietor are two separate items. The jiva is the proprietor of his or her gross and subtle body. It is only out of igno¬rance that the jivas consider their body to be the self. In Caitanya-caritāmṛta Sri Mahaprabhu states:
jīvera svabhāva— kṛṣṇa-’dāsa’ abhimāna
dehe ātma-jñāne ācchādita sei ’jñāna’
The original nature of every living entity is to consider himself the eternal servant of Krishna. But under the influence of Maya he thinks himself to be the body, and thus his original consciousness is covered.
(Madhya 24.201)
vastuta pariṇāma-vāda sei se pramāṇa
dehe ātma-buddhi ei vivartera sthāna
Transformation of energy is a proven fact. It is the false bodily conception of the self that is an illusion.
(Ādi 7.123)
The living entity is eternal, not temporary like the gross and subtle bodies. The jivas’ miserable condition is due to their forgetfulness of Krishna. Being conscious of Krishna is the healthy and natural condition for jivas. To consider themselves Krishna’s eternal servants is their constitutional position. Considering themselves enjoyers, the jivas are ‘diseased’. Turning toward Krishna is the only effective medicine. To help the godless living entities turn toward Krishna is real compassion and is the highest type of welfare work. Krishna’s living entities are suffering because they have for¬gotten Him. If the sādhus can influence them to dovetail all their activities with Krishna’s service, they will become eternally happy.
— AmṛtaVāṇī: Nectar of Instructions of Immortality; His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada; Compiled by Sripada Bhakti Mayukha Bhagavat Mahāraja; Adapted and Published by Isvaradasa; Translated from Bengali by Bhumipatidasa.
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