The Luster of a Gem is Not Created by the Washing Off of the Dirt
BY: PATITA PAVANA DAS
Jan 12, 2011 — USA (SUN) — In S. Rajiv Mohan B.G.'s article entitled, "Jiva Discussion Best Kept in ISKCON House", it is stated that in the Veda there is nothing written on the fall of the jiva from the spiritual world.
But in the verses and commentaries of the 4 sampradayas of the Vedanta sutra 4.4.1-4 and Srimad Bhagavad-gita 5.15-16 we read that the fools cooked in the samsara (the grinding wheel of birth and death) have fallen in this asat (almost real).
Sri Ramanujacarya in His Sri Bhasya 4.4.3 quotes Saunaka rsi in Visnudharma 4.55-57:
"Just as the luster of a gem is not created by the washing off of the dirt, so the knowledge of the soul is not created by the removal of faults. Just as water is not created by the digging of a well, only what is already existent is brought to manifestation,— for how can there be the origination of what is non-existent,—so the attributes of knowledge and the rest are manifested, and not created, through the destruction of the evil qualities, for they belong to the soul eternally."
Then He writes:
"The eternally manifest essential nature is concealed by ignorance consisting of karma (when the soul is in bondage). The removal of the concealment is called manifestation of one's own nature. The qualities of intelligence, bliss etc suffer contraction (sankucitAnAm) by means of karmas. After the attainment of the Supreme Brahman they manifest in the form of expansion (vikAsa-rupAvirbhAvo)".
The luster of the soul (sat-cit-ananda, eternal knowledge and bliss) was shining. If the soul is to go to Krishna-loka after leaving the present material body it must have had the same luster and nature before he/she came to the samsara. The svarupa, its own form, is eternal. This is called nitya-svarupa. That means the soul's original position cannot have been the brahmajyoti. Brhad Bhagavatamrta 2.2.215 describes the happiness in the brahmajyoti as monotonous, undeveloped and so vague as to be virtually nonexistent. The brahmajyoti is a shrunken or contracted state for the soul.
The original position cannot have been with Maha-Visnu for the same reason because that is vaidhi bhakti and aisvarya jnana, worship in awe and reverence. See Brhad Bhagavatamrta 2.3.45-47. Gopakumara left Maha-Visnu because he was dissatisfied.
Therefore one, who is a Krishna-bhakta now, was a Krishna-bhakta before he/she blooped from Krishna-loka in the ocean of illusions.
Ramanuja continues:
"The soul's constitutional form was previously known and existed in perfection, fully (siddhatve' pi) with unlimited knowledge etc. (jnAnAdi-svarupasya). The soul manifests its own essential nature. There is no production of a new form (Agantuka means added on, extrinsic). The inherent bliss of the self , overpowered by karma caused by love and hatred during the state of samsara becomes manifest in mukti when the soul is released from the contact with the karmas and the body produced by them".
Nimbarka in his Vedanta-parijata-saurabha (fragrance of the heavenly flower of the Vedanta) writes:
"after leaving the material body, the soul in the spiritual world becomes manifest in its own natural form". To prove he quotes Chandogya upanisad 8.12.3: "The soul is completed in or restored to his own form".
His disciple Srinivasa – considered the Lord's sankhavatara (concshell), (Nimbarka is the incarnation of the Lord's Sudarsana-cakra, disc) - their sampradaya's recognized commentator, in his Vedanta Kausthuba (gem of the Vedanta) purports:
"The soul has its real nature and qualities manifest. If it would be an adventitious form (not inherent, not inherited, extrinsic, acquired) the adjective "in his own" would be meaningless. The soul's real nature is veiled during the state of bondage. On attaining the Lord the unenveloped and natural form becomes manifested."
Then in his comment on Vedanta sutra 4.4.2 he writes:
On Vedanta sutra 4.4.4 he comments:
"Through the influence of nescience the individual soul comes to have a perverted notion about itself."
"…comes to have" means the soul didn't have the influence of nescience. It had its natural eternal form, this becomes veiled, overpowered, covered. The soul got, "came to have," the tama, raja, sattva guna's of maya.
Srinivasa ends:
"By the repeated practice of hearing, thinking, meditating etc. all the obstacles to real knowledge are destroyed."
Sri Madhvacarya in his Anubhasya of Vedanta Sutra similarly, as all other commentators, quotes Chandogya upanisad 8.3.4:
"Having reached the Supreme Brahman he issues forth with his own form (in his own true appearance) svena rupa."
In 1.3.19 he writes:
"There he goes about, eating, sporting, rejoicing…the released (soul) who has attained to his original state as pure spirit, through the grace of the supreme Lord…having reached whom the soul is restored to its essential nature."
Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana writes similarly in his Govinda Bhasya 4.4.1:
"There is the manifestation of one's own real original form (svena-rupena) and its glory opulence bliss etc when the soul enters the effulgent spiritual world. This form had existed all along and is not newly attained or an external imposition. The soul's original form exists but is not openly manifested (during its conditioned state).
The four sampradaya's comments on Bhagavad-gita 5.15-16
nadatte kasyacit papam / na caiva sukrtam vibhuh
ajnanenavrtam jnanam / tena muhyanti jantavah
jnanena tu tad ajnanam / yesam nasitam atmanah
tesam aditya-vaj jnanam / prakasayati tat param
"Nor does the Supreme Lord assume anyone's sinful or pious activities. Embodied beings, however, are bewildered because of the ignorance which covers their real knowledge. When, however, one is enlightened with the knowledge by which nescience is destroyed, then his knowledge reveals everything, as the sun lights up everything in the daytime."
On this verse of Bhagavad gita Madhvacarya writes:
"On account of the power of understanding being obstructed by nescience, the jivas do not know or see Him."
Sri Ramanuja's commentary:
"The atma is transcendental to material nature...How then is it that the atma is thus shrouded by this vasana. Lord Krishna reveals that it is because of ignorance. It is ignorance which shrouds and obscures spiritual knowledge. Ignorance and nescience is that which is opposed to spiritual knowledge and wisdom. By the shrouding of ignorance ...the consciousness of the atma becomes obscured and the intelligence compromised allowing the living entity to enter the perilous predicament of believing they are the enjoyer..
Although the intelligence may be shrouded by the veil of ignorance still it has been seen that there are those whose consciousness becomes awakened upon receiving Vedic knowledge."
Knowledge of Krsna was present, became obscured and clouded, then becomes uncovered.
Kumara Vaisnava Sampradaya: Nimbaditya - Kesava Kasmiri comments:
"The living entity's knowledge is obscured into a lesser quality like the light of a lamp is lessened when covered by a shaded glass although it does not change its nature. Contrarily when one has achieved atma tattva then in the state of moksa or liberation the destruction of the physical and subtle bodies reveals the knowledge of the atmas quality as the light of a lamp is more illuminating when the shaded glass cover is removed.... As the removal of the impurities obscuring a jewel allows its radiance to be seen; in the same way when the impurity of undesirable mundane qualities like lust and fruitiveness are removed and abandoned then the transcendental qualities of wisdom, renunciation and compassion reveal themselves in all their splendor. These qualities are always present without being created because they are eternally manifested as qualities of the atma."
The metaphor is very enlightening. The soul was effulgent with knowledge and bliss in the presence of Krishna. Just as the lamp shines by the energy of the powerhouse. In the brahmajyoti there is only sat (eternality), no cit (knowledge) and ananda (bliss). See CC.Adi 2.5.
The Krishna conscious soul's qualities will be also dimmed in the presence of Maha-Visnu. (See Brhad Bhagavamrta 2.6.378: "…anguished and tormented in separation from Krishna.")
Rudra Vaisnava Sampradaya: Visnuswami - Sridhara Swami's Commentary:
"Here Lord Krishna is emphasizing that persons whose spiritual knowledge has become awakened do not become deluded in the material existence."
"…awakened" means Krsna-consciousness was present, then became dormant, and then returned.)
Madhvacarya:
"On account of the power of understanding being obstructed by nescience, the jiva's do not know or see Him."
Visvanath Cakravarti Thakura:
"One of the associates, His sakti called ignorance, covers the inherent knowledge of the jiva.
Baladeva Vidyabhusana:
"The knowledge of the jiva, though eternal, disappears from view (avrtam)."
This is only from Bhagavad-gita and Vedanta sutra (the summary of all Veda), the two most important books of India. Some months ago we gave quotes on the soul's fall into matter from the Mahabharata and Puranas and from recent acaryas.
In a lecture on the Vedanta-sutra, Srila Prabhupada says: "it is the duty of an acarya to magnify and beautify the conclusions." He gloriously enlightened the whole world, including bharata varsa (= the land of light).
