Volunteer

Is the soul punished?!

Hare Krsna to all the devotees!

Dandavat pranam!

In Bhagawat Gita, Chapter 2, sloka 20, it is as such:

"Neither he who thinks the living entity the slayer nor he who thinks it slain is in knowledge, for the self slays not nor is slain (BG 2.20)"

My question regarding this is that, when a person kill someone he is sure to be punshed after death, so who is punished for commiting a crime? the soul I suppose (pls correct me if I'm wrong) but if the eternal soul is not killed by anyone or cannot kill anyone than why is it punished? And if the soul is not punished then please tell who is punished.

I apologize if I have commited any offense by asking this question being a neophyte.

Your insignificant servant

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Replies

  • Volunteer

    Hare Krsna!

    Accept my humble obeisances, All Glories to Srila Prabhupad!

    Very nice explanation Srijon prabhuji, thank you very much :)

    Your servant

  • Volunteer

    Hare Krsna Sudipta prabhuji,

    Accept my humble obeisances, AGTSP!

    Thankyou very much for you reply. Sorry for my ignorance, but please explain the concept clearly,

    "Living beings are unmanifested in their beginning and also when they are annihilated, manifested only in their interim state" 

     I read this purport many a times before also, I ain't getting it. Hare Krsna

    Your servant

    • Sevak

      Hare Krishna. PAMHO. AGTSP. 

      A kalpa is a single daytime period in the life of Brahma. Two kalpas are a day and a night of Brahma.
      Each kalpa is composed of 1,000 maha yugas. A kalpa is thus equal to 4.32 billion human years.

      At the end of Brahma's daytime period, the Three Worlds (Bhuloka, Bhuvarloka, Swarloka) and the seven underworlds (of the nagas) are temporarily dissolved (pralaya). The souls of individuals also continue to exist to be reincarnated in the next daytime of Brahma.

      The Vishnu Purana states that at the end of the daytime period of Brahma, a dreadful drought occurs that lasts 100 years, and all the waters are dried up. The sun changes into seven suns, and the three worlds (Bhurloka or Earth, Bhuvarloka or the lowest heaven, and Svarloka or the next higher heaven) and the underworlds are burned bare of life. The inhabitants of Bhuvarloka and Svarkloka flee to the next higher heaven, Maharloka, to escape the heat; and then to the next higher heaven, Janaloka.

      Then mighty clouds form and the three worlds are completely flooded with water. Then Lord Vishnu reposes on the waters in meditative rest for another whole kalpa (4.32 billion years) before renewing the creation.

      At the end of the life of Brahma, all worlds are completely dissolved (mahapralaya). There is complete annihilation of the entire universe, and in both the periods both the material energy called the mahat-tattva and the marginal energy called jīva-tattva merge in the person of the Supreme Lord(Lord Vishnu). The living beings remain asleep within the body of the Lord until there is another creation of the material world, and that is the way of the creation, maintenance and annihilation of the material manifestation.

      Your Servant. Hari Bol!


  • Volunteer

    Hare Krsna,

    Dandavat Pranam, AGTSP!

    Thanks to both of you for your kind response. Pls will you kindly explain the highlighted lines given below as well?

    avyaktadini bhutani vyakta-madhyani bharata
    avyakta-nidhanany eva tatra ka paridevana (BG 20. 28)

    TRANSLATION

    All created beings are unmanifest in their beginning, manifest in their interim state, and unmanifest again when they are annihilated. So what need is there for lamentation?

    Your insignificant servant

    • Volunteer

      Hare Krishna Mataji. Dandavat Pranam. All glories to Srila Prabhupada

      BG 2.28 PURPORT by His Divine Grace A.C BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI PRABHUPADA

      Accepting that there are two classes of philosophers, one believing in the existence of the soul and the other not believing in the existence of the soul, there is no cause for lamentation in either case. Nonbelievers in the existence of the soul are called atheists by followers of Vedic wisdom. Yet even if, for argument's sake, we accept this atheistic theory, there is still no cause for lamentation. Apart from the separate existence of the soul, the material elements remain unmanifested before creation. From this subtle state of nonmanifestation comes manifestation, just as from ether, air is generated; from air, fire is generated; from fire, water is generated; and from water, earth becomes manifested. From the earth, many varieties of manifestations take place. Take, for example, a big skyscraper manifested from the earth. When it is dismantled, the manifestation becomes again unmanifested and remains as atoms in the ultimate stage. The law of conservation of energy remains, but in course of time things are manifested and unmanifested — that is the difference. Then what cause is there for lamentation either in the stage of manifestation or in unmanifestation? Somehow or other, even in the unmanifested stage, things are not lost. Both at the beginning and at the end, all elements remain unmanifested, and only in the middle are they manifested, and this does not make any real material difference.

      And if we accept the Vedic conclusion as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā that these material bodies are perishable in due course of time (antavanta ime dehāḥ) but that the soul is eternal (nityasyoktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ), then we must remember always that the body is like a dress; therefore why lament the changing of a dress? The material body has no factual existence in relation to the eternal soul. It is something like a dream. In a dream we may think of flying in the sky, or sitting on a chariot as a king, but when we wake up we can see that we are neither in the sky nor seated on the chariot. The Vedic wisdom encourages self-realization on the basis of the nonexistence of the material body. Therefore, in either case, whether one believes in the existence of the soul or one does not believe in the existence of the soul, there is no cause for lamentation for loss of the body.

      Your aspiring Servant

      Hari Bol

  • Sevak

    Hare Krishna. PAMHO. AGTSP.

    We are the soul not the body so our punishment is for the soul too. But we are punished through the body. By killing one animal we are taking the chance of being killed by the same animal in the next life. That is usually the case. But for certain crimes, Yamaraja punishes us by burning, beating etc. our present, past or future body after death. Soul can not die. It is eternal, ever-existing, too small to be even seen by material eyes.

    Your Servant. 

    Hari Bol!

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