Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gave this consciousness to the world:
jivera ‘svarupa’ haya — krsnera ‘nitya-dasa’
krsnera ‘tatastha-sakti’ ‘bhedabheda-prakasa’
suryamsa-kirana, yaichhe agni-jvala-chaya
svabhavika krsnera tina-prakara ‘sakti’ haya
Krishna is like a chit-surya, a great sun made of spiritual energy, and the jiva-souls are like rays of that spiritual sun. Just as the sun and the sun’s rays are both different and nondifferent, Krishna and the jiva-souls are simultaneously different and nondifferent. Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur said, «Tad bhinnamsams cha jivan: the jiva-souls are distinct, finite parts of the infinite Lord.» In this way the jiva-souls belong to the Lord. They come from the Lord’s energy, His marginal potency (tatastha-sakti). The jiva-souls naturally have a subservient relationship with the Lord, that is, all jiva-souls are eternal servitors of their Lord, Sri Krishna. That is their natural identity. This is Mahaprabhu Sri Chaitanyadev’s primary teaching: the service of Krishna is the true dharma of every jiva-soul.
The jiva-souls are one of the Lord’s three primary energies.
visnu-saktih para prokta ksetrajnakhya tatha para
avidya-karma-samjnanya trtiya saktir isyate
Lord Krishna’s power has three divisions: His para-sakti [internal spiritual energy]; His ksetrajna-sakti [marginal spiritual energy], which manifests the individual jiva-souls; and His apara-sakti [material energy]. These three main potencies of Krishna are also sometimes known by other names such as the antaranga-sakti, tatastha-sakti, and bahiranga-sakti. All of these energies are activated by Krishna’s will for His play and satisfaction.
The Divine Couple’s transcendental play with Their paraphernalia, that is, all of Krishna-lila, is part of the chit-sakti [spiritual potency]. The jiva-souls come out from the tatastha-sakti for Krishna’s play and satisfaction, as well as the creation of the material world. The material environment and the bewilderment of the conditioned souls come from the maya-sakti [material energy], which is like the Lord’s shadow potency, a reflection of His spiritual energy (chit-sakti).
The jiva-souls are the Lord’s marginal potency, tatastha-sakti. Tata means a shore, the area on the bank of a river between water and land. Tatastha-sakti means the Lord’s energy that is situated on the margin between the spiritual and material energy, and can adapt to either environment.
Question: If «not a blade of grass moves without the will of the Lord», then do the jiva-souls have free will?
Srila Govinda Maharaj: Krishna gives the jiva-souls some free will. Krishna wants to see if the jiva-souls will willingly serve His divine lotus feet and dedicate themselves to Him. That is Krishna’s desire. He gives the jiva-souls free will and does not disturb it. This is because He wants to have a loving relationship with them, and love is not possible without free will. This is why Krishna created His neutral sakti, the jiva-sakti: for the expansion of His loving Pastimes.
The jiva-soul’s nature (dharma), given by Krishna, is to have free will. Free will means consciousness. Consciousness means thinking, feeling, and willing. Every jiva-soul has these three capacities. And they are always active; the jiva-souls can never stop thinking, feeling, and willing. The jiva-souls are always pursuing something; by their nature they are always active and seeking.
The jiva-souls are part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, who is the Sach-chid-ananda-vigrahah: the embodiment of eternity, consciousness, and ecstasy. This means the jiva-soul’s nature is also sach-chid-ananda, eternally existent, conscious, and ecstatic. The jiva-soul’s existence is built by Krishna’s own existence, just as a sun-ray comes from the sun. The jiva-soul’s thinking, feeling, and willing, the jiva-soul’s conscious nature (chit), is always seeking the jiva-soul’s positive nature — ananda. This means that they are by nature searching for Krishna, searching for the ecstasy, love, beauty, and charm that are present within Him.
The jiva-souls feel whatever they do. Whenever the jiva-souls feel the presence of beauty they naturally want to dedicate themselves to that, to serve and worship the source of that beauty. This capacity and tendency for dedication is the actual function of the jiva-souls’ conscious nature, of their thinking, feeling, and willing. We see that everywhere within all cultures people have a tendency to worship. Even jungle-men worship the sun, moon, and ocean, or the trees, mountains, caves, and so on. All jiva-souls’ nature is to worship. It is existing within their consciousness. Pure devotional life, that is, pure attraction and service to beauty, is the actual nature, the actual dharma, of the jiva-souls.
It is within the nature of all jiva-souls to be attracted by the magnetic power of beauty. When a jiva-soul’s whole existence is overcome by the attractive power of beauty, then the jiva-soul manifests its full nature as an eternal servant. The two syllables of the word Krs-na mean akarsana kare and ananda dana: Krishna attracts the jiva-souls and gives ecstasy to them through His service. Krishna is like a great attractive magnet and the jiva-souls, His parts and parcels, are like iron filings that are divinely attracted to Him. The jiva-souls are automatically attracted to Krishna and His Pastimes in the transcendental world, and the jiva-souls feel naturally fulfilled in their relationship with Krishna, that is, in Krishna-bhakti. This is the sanatan-dharma, the jaiva-dharma, the eternal religion of all jiva-souls. Really religion is one, «Dharmo yasyam Mad-atmakah (SB: 11.14.3): all souls must be attracted to the divine sun, Sri Krishna, and serve Him with their full existence.»33 This is the property of all jiva-souls. It is not anything mundane or made by humanity.
Question: How do the jiva-souls enter into the material nature?
Srila Govinda Maharaj: Whenever jiva-souls manifest within the marginal energy (tatastha-sakti), they mostly go to the side of the spiritual energy (chit-sakti). There they find the light of their positive spiritual existence in the company of their all-attractive Lord in the eternal world, Vaikunthaloka. Some unfortunate souls, however, come to the negative side, the maya-sakti.
krsna bhuli’ sei jiva anadi-bahirmukha
ataeva maya tare deya samsara-duhkha
Sometimes jiva-souls, by their misfortune, jump into maya [illusion] to attempt to enjoy material existence. When their vision, not seeing Krishna, moves to the negative side, they see maya, and immediately feel, «Oh! There is great beauty! I can master and enjoy that energy.» In this way unfortunate jiva-souls jump into the darkness of the illusory environment.
Maya means the illusory environment, the Lord’s shadow potency, His dark power, which attracts the sparking light of the jiva-souls. Maya Devi is one of the Lord’s potencies, and by His will she has great attractive power.
krsna-bahirmukha hana bhoga-vanchha kare
nikata-stha maya tare japatiya dhare
Whenever unfortunate souls want to enjoy separately from their Lord and come under the spell of Maya’s attraction, they jump towards her and she immediately embraces them. She weaves a web around them, binding them as her prisoners. These jiva-souls are immediately covered by the dark power of Maya’s illusory environment and thrown into the waves of birth and death.
The unfortunate group of jiva-souls who are bound by Maya Devi is very small though. Actually, within the total transcendental reality, the mayik jagat, the illusory material universe, is like a very small skin spot. The souls in this world are a very small, insignificant minority, and they live in the material environment like prisoners. When people break the rules and regulations of society they are sent to prison. Prison is supposed to reform criminals, and this world is like a prison house for purifying the jiva-souls. But the number of people in prison is always a very small percentage of the total population. Today in India there are at least 90 crores [900 million] of people but only 25 lakhs [2.5 million] of prisoners. It is only a small portion of the jiva-souls who unfortunately want to enjoy maya and are subjected to the bondage and suffering of material existence.
mayadhyaksena prakrtih suyate sa-characharam
hetunanena kaunteya jagad viparivartate34
Srila Guru Maharaj explained that the material universe functions in a cyclic way under the Lord’s direction. By the Lord’s will, the material energy manifests the matter of the mundane universe and then becomes filled with moving and non-moving life forms, that is, jiva-souls. In His form of Visnu, Krishna casts His glance upon maya. Through His glance He throws His power, His lingam [male potency] into prakrti, the material nature. Tal-lingam Bhagavan Sambhur (Bs: 5.8): the personification of that reproductive potency thrown by Visnu is Sambhu, Lord Siva. When Visnu casts His glance over maya, the form of Sambhu appears, and it is Sambhu who directly touches maya, the material energy. Through Sambhu, Visnu’s neutral power made up of the jiva-souls enters into the womb of material nature and comes out in a divided way in millions and millions of parts. In this way all the jiva-souls enter into the material world and activate the material energy.
Question: As a university student, all of my science classes are based on Darwin’s theory of evolution that humans evolved from previous species who evolved from inanimate matter. How can I integrate Darwin’s theory of evolution with your teachings?
Srila Govinda Maharaj: If two ideas are completely different, like negative and positive charges, then it is not possible to harmonise them. If you try to combine negative and positive charges without the support of a neutral position, then a shock is inevitable. There is always a clash between materialistic and spiritual theories, so you will only find harmony when you try to discover what is actually negative and positive.
Mundane educational institutions teach Darwin’s theory of evolution, although it has never been proven. Darwin’s theory is not a complete explanation of existence because it does not actually explain where movement and consciousness come from. Its conclusions are speculations based upon observations of fossils. Because Darwin’s theory is based only upon the observations of the senses, it cannot properly determine the true origin of consciousness — the senses are themselves instruments of consciousness.
Darwin’s theory of evolution is completely different from conclusive transcendental knowledge. Transcendental knowledge appears directly in the heart through revelation in the association of sadhus and scriptures. It does not rely on the senses or mind. Only transcendental knowledge is completely authoritative and free from illusion. Only through transcendental knowledge is there the possibility of having complete and satisfying knowledge of all existence — of both matter and spirit.
The scriptures explain that there are 400,000 types of human species, chatur-laksani manusah (Pp). We can agree that it is possible for some of these types of human species to come about according to the ideas given in Darwin’s theory, but we can never agree that all humans came about in that way. The Vedic scriptures explain that creation begins with the appearance of Brahma, and Brahma engineers the rest of the universal creation under the order of the Supreme Lord.
One name of Brahma is Svayambhu, ‘Self-born’. Brahma is the first created being within the universe, and there is only one Brahma. There is only one self-born being because Brahma himself creates all other beings. In the past, and certainly within the five thousand years of modern history, there has never lived another being like Brahma.
The scientists have now developed their gene theory. Through that they have changed the forms of some species. But if all the various life forms in this world were created by accidental changes in genes, then another being like Brahma might have been created. Because this has never happened we can understand that creation is not random and species do not appear simply by accident. In other words, consciousness is controlling creation.
The Vedas explain that creation happens by the will of the Lord. But they explain that creation does not actually come from the Lord Himself directly; it comes from and through His marginal potency, the tatastha-sakti. To understand this we can consider that everything we can recognise in this world — humans, trees, fish, animals, insects, rocks, clouds, and so on — is an expression of consciousness. All recognisable forms in this universe are manifestations of jiva-souls. The Vedic theory is that the spark of life, the jiva-soul, is spiritual and eternal. It is not a creation or formulation of matter. The spiritual jiva-souls enter anywhere and everywhere within the dull matter of the material energy and give rise to so many different forms and combinations of material energy, according to their desires. Even though they are covered by material energy in this way, the jiva-souls, as sparks of life, particles of spirit, are not themselves material. The jiva-souls are spiritual, and, as conscious beings with desires, they express themselves differently within the material energy. They give rise to all the different material forms and movement found within the universe. The creation of variegation within the material universe is actually produced by the presence, consciousness, and desires of the jiva-souls.
The jiva-soul’s existence is very, very tiny. You cannot see it with a microscope.
balagra-sata-bhagasya satadha kalpitasya cha
bhago jivah sa vijneyah sa chanantyaya kalpate
«The size of the jiva-soul’s form is compared to the tip of a hair that has been divided one hundred times and then divided one hundred times again.»
It is miraculous that the sparking light of only one jiva-soul has the power to illuminate the entire universe. All atoms within the universe are forms animated by jiva-souls, and we can understand through the scientists’ electron-proton theory how much power is present within every atom of creation, that is, within every jiva-soul. Everyone has heard about the power of the atomic bomb; they have heard about how much power is released when the form of only one atom is broken. In that way one can easily understand something about the greatness of the power of every jiva-soul.
To understand how the jiva-souls have such great power we can consider that even a part and parcel of the Infinite is infinite. Anywhere a jivatma is present, the Paramatma [Supersoul] is also present. The Paramatma lives in the heart of every jivatma. In the Upanisads it is said:
Dva suparna sayuja sakhaya
Samanam vrksam parisasvajate
«Two birds, the Paramatma and the jivatma, are perched together like friends on the same branch of a peepul tree.»
The Paramatma is always with the jivatma, and the jivatma receives its power and light from the Paramatma. The jivatma’s existence is very subtle, but it can wield infinite power because it is directly related with the Infinite reality, the Paramatma. Whether a jiva-soul lives within an elephant body, a tiger’s body, an insect body, or a human body, is not a factor. The jivatma can show its light and power anywhere and everywhere. Material space and size are insignificant.
There is another way we can understand the relationship between matter and consciousness. If someone asks, «What came first, consciousness or fossils?», we answer that we cannot discuss fossils if we are not first conscious. Consciousness is original. Fossils come into existence through the presence, and by the influence, of consciousness. Consciousness always comes first, before matter.
This is difficult to understand, and I even heard Srila Guru Maharaj debating this point with other Acharyas. Srila Guru Maharaj would never accept fossils to be original. He would always say that behind fossils is consciousness; otherwise, it would not be possible for them to exist. The knower must exist before the known object. Srila Guru Maharaj’s conclusion was, «Everything is existing within consciousness, and everything is built by consciousness. Nothing is jada [matter].»
What is matter? Matter is our illusion. Matter is our misconception. One property of consciousness is that it is always moving, it is always active and dynamic. All movement in the universe is produced by the influence of consciousness upon matter. A stone may appear to you to be solid matter, but actually there is movement, and therefore consciousness, within stone. Within one day we cannot understand that it is moving, but after a thousand years or ten thousand years we will see that a stone has changed its form. In this way we can understand that at all times it is moving. How is it that stone is able to constantly move if there is not conscious existence within it? Our assertion is that everything we perceive is only a manifestation of the movement of consciousness, and that everything exists within consciousness.
Matter and consciousness are never the same thing. They both exist here in this world and we must understand the difference between them. Movement and evolution are properties of consciousness. Dull matter is only a shadow form. It does not move or evolve on its own; it takes shape according to the influence of consciousness upon it. Evolution can only take place on the conscious level. The movement and evolution of consciousness is positive. Whatever happens within the shadow forms of matter is maya and is negative. It is merely a passing show. The word for universe in Sanskrit is jagat, which means gachchhati iti jagat: that which is always moving. This means that the universe is always moving due to the presence of the jiva-souls within it. No form within the universe is permanent. Everything is always changing, and nothing remains in any particular form eternally.
Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur has systematically explained in his book Sri Chaitanya-siksamrta how the jiva-souls animate material nature. He explains that consciousness, which is called chetana in the scriptures, animates all forms within the universe in five primary categories: achchhadita-chetana [covered consciousness], sankuchita-chetana [suppressed consciousness], mukulita-chetana [budding consciousness], vikasita-chetana [blooming consciousness], and purna-vikasita-chetana [fully blossomed consciousness]. I printed one book called Paramartha-dharma-nirnaya to broadcast this knowledge. If you read it you will clearly understand how the jiva-souls are situated within the material energy.
There is consciousness within all forms found in the universe. Achchhadita-chetana means covered consciousness. All the beauty of this world made of ‘immovable’ objects, like rocks, stones, and metals like gold, are made of achchhadita-chetana.
When I was purchasing materials for a building in Nabadwip I was surprised to find that there were two kinds of stone for sale: dead stone and living stone. The living stone was a little more expensive than the dead stone. I was surprised that the quarrymen recognised a difference between dead stone and living stone. That sort of knowledge is found in the Vedas, but how did these villagers come to understand it? They had never studied the scriptures or seen any of the mountains moving, but that knowledge came to them simply from working with the stone.
I asked them to show me how to recognise the difference between the two forms of stone. In that way I learned something from them. Through this example we can understand that consciousness is passing through stone forms of life.
All varieties of plant life are also considered achchhadita-chetana. Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose scientifically proved the theory that plants and trees have consciousness. This is true for all plant life. I personally saw a plant in Fiji that would noticeably contract when you touched it and return to its position when you moved your hand away. Consciousness must be present within plants; otherwise, this would be impossible. In this way the jiva-souls, the sparks of life, particles of spirit, exist within even the grossest material forms.
Sankuchita-chetana means consciousness showing a small fraction of its capacity and activity; consciousness minutely manifesting its natural thinking, feeling, and willing. Sankuchita-chetana refers to insects, aquatics, animals, and similar creatures. All visibly moving forms, apart from humans, are considered sankuchita-chetana.
jalaja nava-laksani sthavara laksa-vimsati
krmayo rudra-sankhyakah paksinam dasa-laksanam
trimsal-laksani pasavah chatur-laksani manusah
In the scriptures we hear that there are 8,400,000 different species in this world: 900,000 kinds of aquatics, 2,000,000 kinds of plants, 1,100,000 kinds of insects and reptiles, 1,000,000 kinds of birds, 3,000,000 kinds of four-legged beasts, and 400,000 kinds of humans. All these life forms, except the plants and humans, are considered sankuchita-chetana.
I have seen some very nice examples of animals showing their conscious nature. Once in a film about jungle lions I saw a lioness chase a group of deer. Within the group of deer were a mother and her baby. When the group of deer saw the lioness coming towards them, all the deer began to run away, but the mother deer could not run very fast because she was trying to bring her baby with her. The rest of the deer ran away from the lioness to safety, but the mother and her baby could not. When the lioness caught up to the mother deer and was about to jump and catch, the mother deer she suddenly stopped. I saw the eyes of the lioness then, and the feeling came to me that she was thinking, «Oh, I am foolish. I did not know this deer had a baby with her.» That lioness was hungry, but she did not kill that mother deer. After she saw the mother deer’s baby she let them go and began to search for food elsewhere. When I saw this, I felt, «Yes, even jungle animals have some consciousness and religion.»
Mukulita-chetana means budding consciousness, a sprout of consciousness which will soon blossom into its full form. This means human life. In human life, consciousness actively begins to expand. In human life, the jiva-souls have some control over their thinking, feeling, and willing. They can make conscious choices. Dogs, tigers, and other species have brains but no species’ brain has as much power as the human brain. The human form is more capable than all other forms; it has the facilities of self-consciousness, intelligence, and discrimination. In human life the jiva-souls can consider what is good and what is bad, and then apply what they decide. Jiva-souls in the human form can consciously search for and discover what is spiritually beneficial for themselves.
But the natures and forms of humans are so variegated. Chatur-laksani manusah: in the scriptures 400,000 species of humans are differentiated! This means there is great diversity within human life. Diversity means differences in mentality. Within human life there are many stages of realisation about the proper use of intelligence and consciousness. These are described by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur as mukulita-chetana [budding consciousness], vikasita-chetana [blooming consciousness], and purna-vikasita-chetana [fully blossomed consciousness].
The stage of mukulita-chetana refers to humans who live as little more than animals (sankuchita-chetana), humans who do not utilise their conscious nature properly for spiritual progress. Atheists, jungle-men, and persons from very low grade cultures with only hazy religious sentiments are described as mukulita-chetana.
ahara-nidra-bhaya-maithunam cha
samanyam etat pasubhir naranam
dharmo hi tesam adhiko viseso
dharmena hinah pasubhih samanah
We must understand the difference between animal life and human life. Human life can be almost the same as animal life. Humans may live in an organised way in cities and buildings, and animals may live in the jungle, but both humans and animals engage in eating, sleeping, fearing, and enjoying (ahara-nidra-bhaya-maithunam cha). These are the natural activities of life for all species. So what is special about human life? What makes human life more than animal life? It is not actually brain power or intellectual capacity but dharma, religion. In human life jiva-souls can connect with their soul’s natural religious mood and culture. If humans don’t use their brain and consciousness to connect with their transcendental existence as jiva-souls through dharma, then there is no difference between their human life and the life of a beast.
Dharma has been explained in a very nice way by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur. He explained that if we search everywhere throughout all the planes of existence in the universe, a-brahma-bhuvanal lokah (Bg: 8.16), we will find that everywhere there is some form of religion, some form of dharma. He used the example of water. What is the religion of water? Water’s nature, or religion, is liquidity. Fire’s religion is producing heat and light. A stone’s religion is to be hard. In this way he gave many examples. Every object and being within the universe functions according to its dharma because of the presence of consciousness, the presence of a jiva-soul, within it. The jiva-souls always exhibit their dharma, nature, but they do so through their forms of embodiment. The jiva-souls are sometimes covered by an animal form, sometimes by an insect form, and sometimes by a human form. All these forms are coverings, part of the illusory environment of maya, which make the jiva-souls forget their spiritual dharma, their true nature as eternal servants of Krishna.
Dharma means religion, but dharma literally means ‘to hold’. When jiva-souls have a human form and their thinking, feeling, and willing is manifest clearly to them, they must practise dharma consciously by holding their mind and mentality in a good position. This is the vital point of human life. If anyone consciously leads a religious life, actively practising the dharma of the soul, they will always be benefitted, and their practice of religious life will help establish them in their natural position, in their true spiritual dharma.
Sa vai pumsam paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhoksaje35
The supreme form of all dharma is Krishna-bhakti, and the practice of other dharmas gradually develops into Krishna-bhakti. The practice of dharma, which is what makes human life more than animal life, ultimately establishes the jiva-souls in their natural position as servitors of Bhagavan Sri Krishna.
In the stage of mukulita-chetana the jiva-soul’s consciousness can open itself to revelation from the transcendental plane. When the consciousness of any jiva-soul is influenced by higher consciousness, then it gets sensible and clean knowledge. When revealed knowledge appears within the hearts of the jiva-souls, then they embrace their natural theistic life and ideal. This is when the jiva-souls begin to enter into their natural position and behave according to their true nature. This stage is called vikasita-chetana, blossoming consciousness.
Revelation enters the hearts of the jiva-souls by the grace of the Lord and the grace of an expert devotee of the Lord. Krishna consciousness exists within all jiva-souls but it is suppressed by the illusory environment. By the grace of a pure sadhu, Krishna consciousness, which already exists inside the jiva-souls, is revealed to them. Through the practice of religious thought and culture (dharma) in the association of pure devotees, the jiva-souls’ consciousness develops day by day more and more. In this way the Krishna consciousness that is already within them marches into the open doors of their hearts from without, and through that the jiva-souls feel the joy of their own pure existence.
If, with consciousness, anyone will try to understand the Lord, then the Lord will reveal Himself to that soul, and then the soul won’t have any further question about the Lord’s existence. Until then one can try to believe and practise the soul’s dharma in the association of pure devotees. The pure devotee is in the highest stage of conscious evolution, purna-vikasita-chetana [fully blossomed consciousness]. A jiva-soul in that stage is described as a siddha-mahapurus, someone who has genuine and direct experience of the Lord, someone whose pure feelings are enriched with full consciousness of the Lord’s Name, Form, Fame, and Pastimes. Everything transcendental and mundane is seen and known by a siddha-mahapurus.
In this way the jiva-souls animate the material energy and exist at different stages of spiritual evolution. One name of the transcendental world is the atma-jagat. Through this name we can understand that the jiva-souls do not come from the material world: they are actually members of the eternal world and have an eternal form. Jivan prakrti-kavalitan Tad-vimuktams cha bhavat. When the jiva-souls misuse their freedom, they enter the material nature and suffer in the bondage of karma. When they are re-established in their natural consciousness of eternal service to Krishna, then they transcend Maya’s illusions and feel supramundane joy. Srila Guru Maharaj described this play of the Sweet Absolute with the jiva-souls in his book Subjective Evolution of Consciousness.
kalena nasta pralaye vaniyam veda-samjnita
mayadau brahmane prokta dharmo yasyam mad-atmakah
[Krishna:] «During the creation I spoke to Brahma the Vedic teachings, the dharma of devotion to Me, which was lost during the annihilation by the influence of time.»
34 «Under My direction My material energy produces this world of moving and stationary forms. Thus the world repeatedly manifests.»
sa vai pumsam paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhoksaje
ahaituky apratihata yayatma suprasidati
«Humanity’s supreme dharma is unconditional and unalloyed (self-manifestand irresistible) devotion to thetranscendental Lord, which completely satisfies the soul.»