Hare Krishna to all the devotees
All glories to srila Prabhupada
Parmatma is lord Vishnu situated in our hearts and every atom, but since nothing is without form so soul must have a form too!
Hare Krishna
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Hare Krishna Akshit Prabhu
I would like to congratulate you for asking this question.
You should refer to Bhagavad-gita As It Is
2.29
This is the most amazing verse.
I personally can see the soul at will. That is my good fortune or my capability. You can take it from me that it is not possible to describe the soul in words. I see it as the most amazing phenomena in existence. There are ofcourse others who describe it as amazing like I am again doing to you now. You may be amazed to hear this. Then there are those who even after hearing about the soul cannot understand him at all.
TEXT
āścarya-vat paśyati kaścid enam
āścarya-vad vadati tathaiva cānyaḥ
āścarya-vac cainam anyaḥ śṛṇoti
śrutvāpy enaṁ veda na caiva kaścit
āścarya-vat — as amazing; paśyati — sees; kaścit — someone; enam — this soul; āścarya-vat — as amazing; vadati — speaks of; tathā — thus; eva — certainly; ca — also; anyaḥ — another; āścarya-vat — similarly amazing; ca — also; enam — this soul; anyaḥ — another; śṛṇoti — hears of; śrutvā — having heard; api — even; enam — this soul; veda — knows; na — never; ca — and; eva — certainly; kaścit — someone.
TRANSLATION
Some look on the soul as amazing, some describe him as amazing, and some hear of him as amazing, while others, even after hearing about him, cannot understand him at all.
PURPORT
The fact that the atomic soul is within the body of a gigantic animal, in the body of a gigantic banyan tree, and also in the microbic germs, millions and billions of which occupy only an inch of space, is certainly very amazing. Men with a poor fund of knowledge and men who are not austere cannot understand the wonders of the individual atomic spark of spirit, even though it is explained by the greatest authority of knowledge, who imparted lessons even to Brahmā, the first living being in the universe. Owing to a gross material conception of things, most men in this age cannot imagine how such a small particle can become both so great and so small. So men look at the soul proper as wonderful either by constitution or by description. Illusioned by the material energy, people are so engrossed in subject matter for sense gratification that they have very little time to understand the question of self-understanding, even though it is a fact that without this self-understanding all activities result in ultimate defeat in the struggle for existence. Perhaps one has no idea that one must think of the soul, and also make a solution of the material miseries.
Some people who are inclined to hear about the soul may be attending lectures, in good association, but sometimes, owing to ignorance, they are misguided by acceptance of the Supersoul and the atomic soul as one without distinction of magnitude. It is very difficult to find a man who perfectly understands the position of the soul, the Supersoul, the atomic soul, their respective functions, relationships and all other major and minor details. And it is still more difficult to find a man who has actually derived full benefit from knowledge of the soul, and who is able to describe the position of the soul in different aspects. But if, somehow or other, one is able to understand the subject matter of the soul, then one’s life is successful. The easiest process for understanding the subject matter of self, however, is to accept the statements of the Bhagavad-gītā spoken by the greatest authority, Lord Kṛṣṇa, without being deviated by other theories. But it also requires a great deal of penance and sacrifice, either in this life or in the previous ones, before one is able to accept Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Kṛṣṇa can, however, be known as such by the causeless mercy of the pure devotee and by no other way.
Ok so basically no appropriate words to describe the soul? I can probably understand why!
Hare Krishna
An usual analogy for jiva is that of a spark. See SB 10.78.10, 11.16.11.
Hari Hari
ys J.
a normal jiva is in sankuchit avastha in material domain unlike vishnu who exists in the same form in both domains.
you are kind of in compressed file format in material world.
Ok, so basically it has no well defined structure?
how did you arrive at this conclusion?i said compressed version of original version.original version definitely has form.
I meant a structure which cannot be defined in material words maybe, also I couldn't understand what does sankuchit avastha means, I am sorry
i would try to make as clear as i can..
from whatever i have read it is clear that in spiritual worlds you have form which surely can be understood in material words.e.g you may have a form of peacock.
now in material world what happens is that the form is compressed/drawn in.it just means that the functionality of your original swaroopa is covered up because original swaroopa is utilisable only in vaikuntha worlds.in material worlds you need the sukshma and sthool sharira to function.of course you need "you" too in the covered/latent/unutilisable form.
aapko sankuchit shabd ka artha kaise nahi maloom?aap uttar pradesh ke rehne waale hain,yeh shabd to saamanya hai.anyways it means contracted.
Ok i understand, so basically our original svarup which is there in vaikuntha gets compressed and then covered by the material matter.
Thank you very much for the explanation prabhuji
Also sorry I didn't knew the meaning, you know that nowadays different kinds of language are mixed and spoken.
Hare Krishna
Very nice explaination @Gaurav Chauhan prabhu.
It is good that you brought up Sthool and Sookshma Shareera.
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