Hare Krsna,
One of the beautiful things of studying Srimad Bhagavatam regularly and scrutinizingly, especially in the association of like-minded devotees and under the guidance of our experienced teachers, is that it inspires me to revisit some of the fundamental concepts of Krsna consciousness philosophy from time to time. This lesson provided one such instance where I had to question my understanding about the nature of gross and subtle bodies. We have been studying this topic throughout Lord Kapiladeva’s teachings to Mother Devahuti and surprisingly the doubt did not arise in my mind until now.
This lesson has been an eye-opener especially when I got to the section where it is mentioned that we do not need to engage the mind artificially after a certain point. Secondly, when it is mentioned that samadhi is the highest stage of meditation, it is a shocker to hear Srila Prabhupada’s statement that “meditation, which is an action of the mind, is not the perfect stage of samādhi, or absorption.” He also says that “In the beginning the mind is employed in attracting the form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but in the higher stages there is no question of using the mind.” (SB 3.28.34 Purport)
This naturally begged the question: if we have no use of the mind in the higher stages, how do devotees in the spiritual world (such as the gopis) always remain absorbed in remembering Krsna? Isn’t this not a function of the mind? Then I remembered something. The mind is part of the subtle body; we have both gross and subtle body. Once we become liberated and give up our material body to attain our eternal spiritual form, we relinquish both our gross and subtle bodies. This means we also give up the mind, intelligence, and false ego. If we do not have the mind in the spiritual form, how do we constantly think about Krsna and have our desires? This really left me bewildered. Eventually I had to place my doubt to our dear teacher – HG Dhruva Maharaja prabhu. He responded immediately and put all the doubts to rest.
In essence, Dhruva prabhu’s response is that we also have our senses, mind, intelligence, ego, feelings, and desires in our spiritual form. Just like the senses we have in our material bodies; we have the same senses in our spiritual body. The only difference is that the soul’s senses, intelligence, mind, ego, feelings, and desires are pure and transcendental and fully awakened in relation to Krsna. Spiritual bodies are eternal and full of knowledge and complete happiness. Free of the limitations of matter, simply by their will they can achieve, acquire, or do almost anything. He said that our material body is only a covering on our spiritual body. The natural spiritual impulses are filtered through contaminated consciousness, false ego, intelligence, and mind……then manifest as if generated from the material subtle material elements. The spiritual impulses flow through subtle material energy and only appear as if generated from one’s mind and intelligence.
He also gave the example of Krsna having His own senses, desires, and thoughts. This led me to another chain of dangerous thought. If my earlier misconception of jivas having no sense in the spiritual world is true, then this principle should also apply to Krsna. After all, jivas are qualitatively same as Krsna but quantitatively different. Then I realized that depriving Krsna of any sense would have been a major Mayavada fallacy. Mayavadis attribute Krsna having no senses; they think He is Nirguna. Suddenly the inner Paramatma made me remember a famous beautiful verse of Sri Brahma Samhita 5.32 which stopped by erroneous thought from going further:
aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛtti-manti
paśyanti pānti kalayanti ciraṁ jaganti
ānanda-cinmaya-sad-ujjvala-vigrahasya
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
“I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose transcendental form is full of bliss, truth, substantiality and is thus full of the most dazzling splendor. Each of the limbs of that transcendental figure possesses in Himself, the full-fledged functions of all the organs, and eternally sees, maintains and manifests the infinite universes, both spiritual and mundane.”
The essence of this verse is that Krsna also has senses like us, but His senses are completely spiritual. He performs all varieties of divine spiritual functions with every one of His limbs.
Therefore, the takeaway for me from this great topic is that we have to purify our material senses to revive the covered spiritual senses. And for this we need to engage the mind constantly in the process.
“The mind is used to purify the senses, but when the senses are purified by meditation, there is no need to sit in a particular place and try to meditate upon the form of the Lord. One becomes so habituated that he automatically engages in the personal service of the Lord.” (SB 3.28.34 Purport)
When the mind is thus completely freed from all material contamination and detached from material objectives, it is just like the flame of a lamp. At that time the mind is actually dovetailed with that of the Supreme Lord and is experienced as one with Him because it is freed from the interactive flow of the material qualities. (SB 3.28.35)
Thus situated in the highest transcendental stage, the mind ceases from all material reaction and becomes situated in its own glory, transcendental to all material conceptions of happiness and distress. At that time the yogī realizes the truth of his relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He discovers that pleasure and pain as well as their interactions, which he attributed to his own self, are actually due to the false ego, which is a product of ignorance. (SB 3.28.36)
“When the devotee’s mind is purified and he understands that his mind has to be dovetailed with the desires of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he has attained the perfectional, transcendental stage, which is beyond the perception of material distress and happiness…When the mind is dovetailed to act according to the desire of the Lord, one has attained the transcendental stage.” (SB 3.28.36 Purport)
Therefore, we have to engage in chanting the holy name of the Lord using our mind and tongue. Ceto-darpana-marjanam. By chanting the holy name, we will be able to purify our gross and subtle senses and become fully free from contaminated consciousness.
Thank you, Dhruva Maharaja prabhu, for your help in enhancing my understanding.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Krsna Katha 