In2-MeC

Oulu, Finland
2 October 2003

ceto-darpana-marjanam bhava-maha-davagni-nirvapanam
sreyah-kairava-candrika-vitaranam vidya-vadhu jivanam
anandambudhi-vardhanam prati-padam purnamrtasvadanam
sarvatma-snapanam param vijayate sri-krsna-sankirtanam

cetah - of the heart; darpana - the mirror; marjanam - cleansing; bhava - of material existence; maha-davagni - the blazing forest fire; nivapanam - extinguishing; sreyah - of good fortune; kairava - the white lotus; candrika - the moonshine; vitaranam - spreading; vidya - of all education; vadhu - wife; jivanam - the life; ananda - bliss; ambudhi - the ocean; vardhanam - increasing; prati-padam - at every step; purna-amrta - of the full nectar; asvadanam - giving taste; sarva - for everyone; atma-snapanam - bathing of the self; param - transcendental; vijayate - let there be victory; sri-krsna-sankirtanam - for the congregational chanting of the holy name of Krsna.

"Let there be victory for the chanting of the holy name of Lord Krsna, which can cleanse the mirror of the heart and stop the miseries of the blazing fire of material existence. That chanting is the waxing moon that spreads the white lotus of good fortune for all living entities. It is the life and soul of all education. The chanting of the holy name of Krishna expands the blissful ocean of transcendental life. It gives a cooling effect to everyone and enables one to taste full nectar at every step. "

The word vidya means knowledge, and vadhu means "wife"; thus the pure, original knowledge of the living entity, being the sakti or energy of the spirit soul, accompanies the soul like a faithful wife. Commenting on this verse in his Sri Sanmodana Bhasyam, Srila Bhaktivinoda writes that vidya-vadhu means that knowledge is the wife of the Lord. (Goddess Sarasvati, vidya personified, is an eternal consort of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. ) The jiva-atma is a "sample" (Srila Prabhupada's term) of Krsna. Therefore the soul is called purusa (which means male person. . . Srila Prabhupada always refers to the soul as "he"), since the Lord is Purusottama, the supreme male personality. As complete vidya in the form of Goddess Sarasvati accompanies as the Lord as His wife, so a sample of vidya accompanies the jiva.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 3. 7. 5 states:

desatah kalato yo 'sav
avasthatah svato 'nyatah
aviluptavabodhatma
sa yujyetajaya katham

The pure soul is pure consciousness and is never out of consciousness, either due to circumstances, time, situations, dreams or other causes. How then does he become engaged in nescience?

Narada Muni has this to say about how the originally pure consciousness of the living entity can become engaged in nescience, in Srimad-Bhagavatam 7. 14. 38:

tesv eva bhagavan rajams
taratamyena vartate
tasmat patram hi puruso
yavan atma yatheyate

O King Yudhisthira, the Supersoul in every body gives intelligence to the individual soul according to his capacity for understanding. Therefore the Supersoul is the chief within the body. The Supersoul is manifested to the individual soul according to the individual's comparative development of knowledge, austerity, penance and so on.

The living entity is always in knowledge, but that knowledge is given by the Paramatma in different degrees and qualities according to the capacity of the living entity to receive knowledge. Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana elaborates in Prameya-ratnavali 5. 1:

atha jivanam taratamyam
anu-caitanya-rupatva
jnanitvadya-visesatah
samye satyapi jivanam
taratamyam ca sadhanat

In both their conditioned and liberated states, the jivas are situated in higher and lower grades. Although all living entities are equally conscious and possess knowledge to the limit of the capacity of an individual soul, they nevertheless manifest that original spiritual nature in varying degrees. The extent to which that original nature is uncovered is determined by their purity and devotion to the Supreme Lord.

The result of the soul's getting material consciousness, or material knowledge, from the Paramatma is that the spirit soul works against his own transcendental nature.

lokah svayam sreyasi nasta-drstir
yo 'rthan samiheta nikama-kamah
anyonya-vairah sukha-lesa-hetor
ananta-duhkham ca na veda mudhah

Due to ignorance, the materialistic person does not know anything about his real self-interest, the auspicious path in life. He is simply bound to material enjoyment by lusty desires, and all his plans are made for this purpose. For temporary sense gratification, such a person creates a society of envy, and due to this mentality, he plunges into the ocean of suffering. Such a foolish person does not even know about this. [Bhag. 5. 5. 16]

This anyonya-vairah or society of envy is first experienced within one's own "materialized" self. Even before any consideration of our relationships with persons outside ourselves, each of us has our own personal "social circle" of soul, false ego, intelligence, mind and senses. Sri Prahlada Maharaja, speaking in Srimad-Bhagavatam 7. 9. 40, compares his senses to wives. Bhagavatam 5. 1. 17 refers to the mind and the five jnanendriyas as wives of the self. In the following translations of 4th Canto Bhagavatam verses concerning King Puranjana, the social relationship of the soul with the material intelligence--here clearly described as the wife of the soul--is indicated.

King Puranjana had unlimited desires for sense enjoyment. Consequently he traveled all over the world to find a place where all his desires could be fulfilled. Unfortunately he found a feeling of insufficiency everywhere. (27. 12) Once, while wandering in this way, he saw on the southern side of the Himalayas, in a place named Bharata Varsa a city that had nine gates all about and was characterized by all auspicious facilities. (27. 13)

While wandering here and there in that wonderful garden, King Puranjana suddenly came in contact with a very beautiful woman who was walking there without any engagement. She had ten servants with her, and each servant had hundreds of wives accompanying him. (27. 20)

The woman was protect on all sides by a five hooded snake. She was very beautiful and young, and she appeared very anxious to find a suitable husband. (27. 21)

Being thus entangled in different types of mental concoction and engaged in fruitive activities, King Puranjana came completely under the control of material intelligence and was thus cheated, Indeed, he used to fulfill all the desires of his wife, the Queen. (27. 61)

In this way, King Puranjana was captivated by his nice wife and was thus cheated. Indeed, he became cheated in this whole existence in the material world. Even against that poor foolish King's desire, he remained under the control of his wife, just like a pet animal that dances according to the order of its master. (27. 62)

But here is the ultimate reality of the relationship between soul and mind:

guna-vyaktir iyam devi
vyanjako guna-bhug bhavan
tvam hi sarva-sariry atma
srih sarirendriyasayah
nama-rupe bhagavati
pratyayas tvam apasrayah

Mother Laksmi, who is here, is the reservoir of all spiritual qualities, whereas You manifest and enjoy all these qualities. Indeed, You are actually the enjoyer of everything. You live as the Supersoul of all living entities, and the goddess of fortune is the form of their bodies, senses and minds. She also has a holy name and form, whereas You are the support of all such names and forms and the cause for their manifestation. [Bhag. 6. 19. 13]

In the Siksastakam verse cited at the beginning, the mind is compared to a mirror in which the self and Superself are nicely reflected when the mirror is cleansed by the chanting of the Holy Names. In this mirror analogy we are offered further insight into the sense of knowledge as vadhu, the wife of the soul. Reflectivity is feminine. A mirror reflects and is thus a symbol of the female. The moon reflects the light of the sun; thus the sun is considered masculine, the moon feminine--and furthermore, the moon symbolizes the mind. The purusa, the soul, is reflected in the mind; we even have the term "self-reflection" for deep thoughts about the self's place in the universe. Thus the mind is to the soul like the moon is to the sun.

Material consciousness means the covering of "the sun" (the purusa) and "the moon" (the reflecting consciousness, or knowledge) by shadow. Srimad-Bhagavatam 12. 4. 32 explains:

yatha ghano 'rka-prabhavo 'rka-darsito
hy arkamsa-bhutasya ca caksusas tamah
evam tv aham brahma-gunas tad-iksito
brahmamsakasyatmana atma-bandhanah

Although a cloud is a product of the sun and is also made visible by the sun, it nevertheless creates darkness for the viewing eye, which is another partial expansion of the sun. Similarly, material false ego, a particular product of the Absolute Truth made visible by the Absolute Truth, obstructs the individual soul, another partial expansion of the Absolute Truth, from realizing the Absolute Truth.

The above verse does not mention the moon, but just as a cloud hides the sun from the eye in the daytime, so a cloud hides the moon (or pure spiritual mind) from the eye at night. (Srila Prabhupada indicates this overwhelming of the mind by the false ego in his purport to Gita 6. 5: "In fact, the pure soul is entangled in the material world because the mind is involved with the false ego, which desires to lord it over material nature. ") Under the darkness of false ego's cloudy covering, the self and his mind, or his knowledge, struggle with one another. This is the cause of all the twisted psychology that can be observed in the conditioned state of the living entity. For instance, when consciousness comes under false ego it is split into rational awareness and irrational subconscious. The soul sometimes sides with the mind's rational side against the irrational side, and vice versa. A very commonplace illustration of that is our passing from wakefulness (which is rational awareness) into dream, deep sleep (both of which belong to the irrational subconcious) and back to wakefulness.

The soul opposed to his own consciousness? It is explained here:

When one deviates from his original consciousness, he loses the capacity to remember his previous position or recognize his present one. When remembrance is lost, all knowledge acquired is based on a false foundation. When this occurs, learned scholars consider that the soul is lost. (Bhag. 4. 22. 31)

Consciousness opposed to the soul? It is explained here:

Material consciousness is the cause of one's conditional life, in which conditions are enforced upon the living entity by the material energy. Although the spirit soul does not do anything and is transcendental to such activities, he is thus affected by conditional life. (Bhag. 3. 26. 7)

When the darkness of false ego is removed, then the soul and his original, pure mind or knowledge or consciousness are reunited in great happiness. This is nicely explained in Srimad-Bhagavatam 7. 11. 7, where atma (in the phrase yena catma prasidyati) is translated by Srila Prabhupada as "soul, mind, body and everything" in the word-for-word synonyms.

dharma-mulam hi bhagavan
sama-vedamayo harih
smrtam ca tad-vidam rajan
yena catma prasidati

The Supreme Being, the Personality of Godhead, is the essence of all Vedic knowledge, the root of all religious principles, and the memory of great authorities. O King Yudhisthira, this principle of religion is to be understood as evidence. On the basis of this religious principle, everything is satisfied, including one's mind, soul and even one's body.

There are many verses that employ a phrase similar to yena catma prasidyati. The word atma not only means the soul, but also the mind or consciousness. So whenever we read about the atma finding its real satisfaction (prasidyati) in devotional service, we should remember that this means the soul and the mind (or knowledge, or consciousness) together. . . along with the body! Mind and soul, when referred to at once as atma (the self), are in happy harmony, like a husband and wife who find love and peace in each other again after some stormy period of matrimonial discord.

The happy end?

yat sankulam hari-padanati-matra-drstair
vaidurya-marakata-hema-mayair vimanaih
yesam brhat-kati-tatah smita-sobhi-mukhyah
krsnatmanam na raja adadhur utsmayadyaih

The inhabitants of Vaikuntha travel in their airplanes made of lapis lazuli, emerald and gold. Although crowded by their consorts, who have large hips and beautiful smiling faces, they cannot be stimulated to passion by their mirth and beautiful charms. [Bhag. 3. 15. 29]

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