(10) 'I Am Spirit Soul' – Are You?

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Singur,
7 May 2019, noon, part 10
Translated from Bengali

The soul knows what the Supersoul (Paramatma) wants or needs. Paramatma keeps in touch with the soul, and the soul keeps in touch with Paramatma. Many people think that the mind and the soul are one and the same, so they say, 'Eat whatever your soul wishes!' My dear, this is wrong! If you think like this, you will be eating whatever your mind wants to eat. If you think that you want to eat fish, meat, etc. this is what your mind wants, not your soul! The mind functions in the external world. Always remember this. The soul is within us. The soul is part and parcel of Paramatma and it always wants to serve Paramatma.

Why is it then that we cannot do service even if our souls want to? Because we are conditioned souls – we are lowly, fallen jiva souls because we live in subservience to Maya. Even a guru will never say, 'Oh, I am a pure spiritual soul.' Gandhi could say this, but what he said was wrong. I heard that some preach, 'We are spiritual souls.' No! We are conditioned souls! If you think that you are a spiritual soul, you will start thinking that you have become a Vaishnav. Disciples can say about their guru that their guru is a spiritual soul and consider their guru's body holy.

Some ask, 'Gurudev, is your health all right? (আপনার শ্রীআঙ্গ কুশল আছে ?)' Gurus' and Vaishnavs' holy bodies are transcendental, not mundane! It is impossible to serve Govinda with a material body. 'Aprakrta-dehe Krsna bhajaya (অপ্রাকৃত-দেহে কৃষ্ণ ভজয়). One can serve Lord Krishna only with a transcendental body' (Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.4.193). The bodies of those who serve Lord Krishna are transcendental. So, if one practises Krishna consciousness, if one serves the Lord and offers bhoga to the Lord, their body is transcendental; whereas the bodies of outside people, the people of this world, are mundane. We can never consider ourselves transcendental. We always say that we are conditioned souls. We are fallen, lowly souls. That is why we cannot serve the Lord.

One time, somebody asked Srila Prabhupad, 'Are you are a Vaishnav?' Do you know what Srila Prabhupad replied to that? He said, 'It is not so easy to become a Vaishnav. Sometimes we have the ego of a man and we are drawn to the beauty of women, sometimes we have the ego of a woman and we are drawn to men—can such an atheist, sinner and the lowliest of men as myself ever become a devotee?' Do you see? What an answer! A genuine Vaishnav will never say, 'I have become a Vaishnav.'

There is a saying in Bengali, 'Alpa vidya bhayankari (অল্পবিদ্যা ভয়ংকরী). Scanty learning is always dangerous.' We take initiation and become proud thinking that we have become great Vaishnavs. We start fussing, 'Oh, I will not eat this!', 'I will have this!', 'You must use mustard oil for me!' It is always like that... Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur gave a very good answer. If we do not learn these things, what will become of us?

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