(19/22) Soul's Plight

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bolpur, noon, 20 January 2019, part 19
Translated from Bengali

So, does anybody have any questions? None of you is asking anything. Do you think, 'Maharaj, we know everything'? If you have any thoughts or doubts in your mind, you can ask about it.

Question: Why does heart beat so fast when one is dying?

Because there is still some life in it. There is a soul living within all living entities. When you cut a chicken, you can it shake for some time – there is a living soul inside it.

Question: And it is dying?

It is leaving, not dying. The soul does not die. When you kill a living entity, you can see the struggle in the body because the soul never wants to leave the body, but it is always forced to leave. When somebody commits suicide or gets into an accident and dies, they get into a no man's land. 'No man's land' means the territory between two countries that does not belong to either of the countries. Suppose somebody commits suicide. They still have some time left allotted in their body, but they take poison and die, forcing their soul to leave the body earlier. It is said in the scriptures that death is even more fearsome than birth, that is why the soul never wants to leave the body. When Yamaduts come, they forcefully take the soul away from the body. When you see a body jerking, it means the soul is fighting with the body. The heart is stopping and beating fast, but the soul still does not want to leave the body. If it is a train accident, what can you do? This is a misery inflicted by demigods – once it happens, it happens.

When one dies, the soul leaves the body and gets a new body. But if somebody commits suicide, their soul does not get a new body immediately. They get a body forty days later. When people do the fire sacrifice and all the other rites, then the soul soon gets another body according to its karma; otherwise, the soul continues roaming around. You must have heard about ghosts, etc. I have met many people who have seen ghosts. You can ask the ghost, 'What is your name?' and they will tell you their name. 'Where do you come from?' and they will tell you their story – they were at some place, some bridge, they took poison, they hung themselves, they jumped before a train, etc. Sometimes such ghosts take shelter inside other people's bodies. Such souls feel intense hunger and other agonies, but they cannot eat anything, cannot do anything.

If one commits suicide, their soul does not get another body so soon and they suffer a lot. Many people think, 'If I die, I will get some peace,' 'If I take poison, I will get some peace,' but when they take their lives, they suffer even more. When the soul stays in that no man's land for forty days, it suffers even more. You think that you will give up this body and then just get a cat's body, a goat's body, etc. but it is not so simple – you will have to suffer a lot during those forty days. This is described in the scriptures.

Question: Is it possible for one to know about their previous lives?

Not everybody can know it. For example, Kavi Karnapur could know it. Kavi Karnapur is Sivananda Sen's son; his name was Puri Das before. He could tell everybody who they were in their previous life. He got this kind of mercy from Mahaprabhu.

Question: Will everybody get a human body?

No. Only those who have the fortune. There are 60,000 jiva souls standing in a queue to get a nice body at every moment, and only one of them gets a human birth. Everybody gets a body according to the result of their actions. Everybody enters some womb, but only one soul per each 60,000 souls enters a human womb (others get other bodies). I told you yesterday that the number of human species is much smaller than all the other species.

Among humans, some say that karma (working hard to attain your material goal) is the highest ideal. Those who think so are called karmis (selfish workers). Among millions of karmis, there is one wise person; among millions of wise people, there is one liberated soul; and among millions of such liberated souls, there is only one devotee of Krishna. This is what is written in the scriptures.

Question: What happens to the soul if it dies in the womb?

The child's soul gets another body.

Question: Does the soul not get spoilt or affected?

No, it does not. It gets another body. The soul may get another human body or any other body. There are many trees, plants, hills, insects, fish, so many other aquatic species. You can see so many living entities in this world, you cannot even tell all their names. There are 8,400,000 species!

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

Size: 83.1 Mb
Length: 168 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Course of Life
2) Special Arrangement for Kali-Yuga
3) Beyond Religious Bigotry
4) Innermost Desires
5) Fortune, Faith and Frauds
6) Think about Your Real Self
7) Come to Krishna's Family
8) Seek Out Eternal Shelter
9) Proper Surrender
10) Misdirected Worship
11) Deepest Faith
12) Beyond Illusory World
13) Turn Home
14) Gross and Subtle Cheating
15) Watch for Milestones
16) Come Home with Me
17) All That Glitters Is Not Gold
18) Do Not Cheat Yourself
19) Soul's Plight
20) Eternal Transformations
21) Origin of Hinduism
22) Pig's Life, God's Life, Devotee's Life