By Sri Nandanandana dasa (Stephen Knapp)
When we look around, it may seem that some souls are so materially entangled and attracted that they will never give up their attachments or material way of life. But Jiva Goswami explains in his Paramatma Sandarbha that everyone will eventually reach the stage of becoming free from material existence. At first, I did not understand how he could say this, but when I did, I was very encouraged. Hope is there for everyone’s eventual release from material entanglement. And this is how he explains it.
As described, the jivas in the material worlds are manifested through the expansion of the Lord’s eternal marginal energy, the tatastha-shakti, and they are carried into the material ingredients by the glance of Maha-Vishnu when He looks over the material energy. This glance is called “Shambhu,” which is an aspect of Lord Shiva. This glance impregnates the material creation with the innumerable jiva souls. However, Sri Jiva Goswami, one of the great authors of Vedic knowledge of Vrindavana, explains in his Paramatma Sandarbha (Anuccheda 2) that the word “Shambhu” denotes that the source of these jivas is Maha-Vishnu. Thus, this aspect of Shiva being Shambhu is a special expansion of Maha-Vishnu. But Jiva Goswami further says that etymologically, Shambhu means “He from whom Sham—meaning liberation or bhakti—ensues.” In other words, Shambhu, or the glance of Maha-Vishnu, also means eventual liberation.
WAIT A MINUTE! What did I just read? What does this mean? I had to go over this again.
This leads to the question, why does “Shambhu” mean liberation when, as we might say, entering the cosmic creation is the beginning of the jiva’s dreaded material entanglement? Sri Jiva Goswami goes on to explain that as the jivas enter into the influence of the gunas or modes of nature, these push and pull the jivas around so much, giving him so much trouble, that eventually, after eons of this, at some point this forces the jivas to become sober minded and begin to ask “Why? Why am I suffering,” or “what is the point of this life,” or “what am I doing here?” This starts their quest for philosophical understanding and their spiritual journey.
As they continue this quest, they will eventually become purified or spiritualized and learn the higher truth of their real identity and their relation with God, Sri Krishna. For many people this may take many lifetimes. In this regard, most people are slow learners. But it means that every soul sooner or later remembers their divine nature after the many years of their exploration of life within the material energy. As the jiva soul continues his spiritual journey, Jiva Goswami continues to explain that the soul comes under the protection of the Lord’s chit potency, which helps and protects him to continue on this path.
Jiva Goswami then describes that through this process, material life is compared to how a goldsmith takes some gold and heats and reheats it to gradually expel all of its impurities, and then hammers it until it finally reaches the shape that it was meant to have. This is how the material world and the modes of nature affect the jivas. They hammer him until he finally becomes free from his impurities and attains the knowledge of his real identity. So, the very transfer of the jivas into the material energy through the glance of Maha-Vishnu means the eventual liberation from it. That is a rather positive outlook, if you don’t mind me saying so. I had never thought of it in this way before.
So, at present we have entered this material creation for exploring, learning the many aspects of who we are. But when our exploring is finished, and we have done all we can do in this place, and we have learned all that we are meant to learn, and material life becomes distasteful, then it is time to return to our source, to turn back toward God, and prepare to enter the gardens of Krishna’s spiritual abode. For that alone, it is time to rejoice, and to finish the means to awaken to our loving spiritual identity, and to realize we are all eternal parts of God. In that way, we are all sacred. There is no accident in why we are here, or in what we are meant to do.
HOWEVER, and this is a BIG however, there is one caveat in a person’s spiritual search in order to attain the culmination of his spiritual journey. At some point he must encounter one of the Lord’s pure devotees who are wandering over this earth in order to make his spiritual search complete. Simply by meeting such a pure devotee and taking instructions from him and applying them seriously, such souls can attain the goal of this human existence.
As Jiva Goswami explains in his Paramatma Sandarbha (Anuccheda 92), until the jiva soul finds such a spiritual master, he assumes a position that is not his true identity, and thinks he is something other than what he really is, although the jiva is pure spiritual energy in truth. This means that the jiva is a spirit soul which does not undergo the tribulations and troubles of material existence in reality. It is above such things. But as long as it identifies with the material body in which it is situated and forgets his true spiritual identity, then he adopts the idea of “I” and “Mine” and undergoes all the materialistic and false experiences of the body as if they are real.
This misidentification as a material body is simply due to ignorance. Nonetheless, this material creation and the experiences within it are also part of Krishna’s energies, which means they are real in the maya or illusory potency, but are not based on the reality of the soul, nor do they exist in the spiritual strata. As the Lord further explains in Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.11.3): “O Uddhava! Understand that both vidya [knowledge] and avidya [ignorance] are My shaktis [energies]. They are created by My maya [illusory potency], are without beginning, and create both [the appearance of] liberation and bondage for the living beings.” In other words, the soul is always transcendental to material existence and may appear to be bound to the material energy, but it is tied or attached to matter only because of being misdirected due to lack of understanding.
Sri Krishna continues this explanation in the Bhagavatam (11.11.4): “O most intelligent Uddhava, the living entity, called jiva, is part and parcel of Me [Krishna’s eternal energy as the tatastha-shakti], but due to ignorance he has been suffering in material bondage since time immemorial. By knowledge, however, he can be liberated.”
As the Bhagavatam (11.22.10) describes: “Because a person who has been covered by ignorance since time immemorial is not capable of effecting his own self-realization, there must be some other personality who is in factual knowledge of the Absolute Truth and can impart this knowledge to him.”
Because the living entity cannot invoke spiritual awareness on his own, he must approach someone who is self-realized to acquire the spiritual insights for which he searches. When a person who seeks relief from material existence obtains the association of a devotee sage, at that moment a devotional inclination can be awakened towards Sri Krishna. This actually begins that jiva’s awakening of his real nature or dharma and identity, and starts his real occupation, having revived the constitutional position of the soul. This is an extremely rare and important opportunity in one’s life. If one is ever fortunate enough to find such a person, which may only happen once in a lifetime, or even after many lifetimes, he should take it very seriously.
The rarity of meeting a pure devotee who is wandering through the universe is compared to the likelihood of a turtle on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean who just happens to come to the water’s surface and sticks his head through a hole in a plank of wood that just happened to be floating at that precise place.
The Lord as the Supersoul in everyone’s heart is there to help the jiva develop the insights to what is his real identity. When the jiva soul is receptive and ready, the Supersoul will guide him to the point wherein he asks the pertinent questions about why he is suffering, why is he here in this world, how did he get here, and where should he be going. That is when he begins his philosophical search, which at first may simply be only a further development of his quest for material happiness by trying to make sense of things. However, when he is more advanced, the Supersoul will also arrange for him to meet a pure devotee spiritual master to acquire further knowledge and learn how to engage in the spiritual practices to uplift his consciousness, and eventually attain direct perception of his real spiritual identity and his actual connection with God. Finding such a master wandering through this universe is extremely rare, but is one of the facilities provided by Lord Sri Krishna.
“O my Lord! O infallible Supreme Person! When a person wandering throughout the universes becomes eligible for liberation from material existence, he gets an opportunity to associate with devotees. When he associates with devotees, his attraction for You is awakened…” (From the Bhagavatam 10.51.53)
This is further explained in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.18.13): “The value of a moment’s association with a devotee of the Lord cannot even be compared to the attainment of heavenly planets or liberation from matter, and what to speak of worldly benedictions in the form of material prosperity, which is for those who are meant for death [the continued rounds of reincarnation, or one’s demise and rebirth].”
Jiva Goswami, in his Sri Krishna Sandarbha (Anuccheda 67, text 4), further relates that the potency of a pure devotee of the Lord is in being able to reawaken the jiva’s spiritual awareness from dormancy. He says that even though the Ganges River is personally the form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and even though it flows from the lotus foot of the Supreme Lord, Vamanadeva, one must repeatedly bathe in its waters in order to become purified. However, if one once contacts a pure devotee who has taken complete shelter of Lord Krishna, one becomes immediately purified. The pure devotees of the Lord are therefore more glorious even than the Ganges River.
Therefore, if anyone is fortunate enough, or when they finally become fortunate, such souls may attain the process of bhakti, loving devotional service to the Lord, from the guidance of a pure devotee of the Lord and regain their natural loving propensity for the Supreme. This is all that can lead them to attain the transcendental strata, Lord Krishna’s spiritual abode, and leave the material creation far behind once and for all. What can be more joyous than this? This is the ultimate goal for which each soul has the capacity to reach from the time we are placed within this material creation to the time we eventually attain the means to leave it once and for all and reach Lord Krishna’s spiritual domain. In this way, hope is there for everyone.
[Adopted from Sri Nandanandana dasa’s latest book, “How We are All Part of God: Why Your Life is Sacred.”]