If you return back to the Godhead, and in Vaikuntha, are ALL SOULS EQUAL?
or is there a hierarchy? ie a superior soul, inferior soul etc
will there be any difference of the soul?
Another silly question - when the soul is in Vaikuntha - do they eat? do they have feelings? is there any rivalry?
Replies
Hare Krishna,
All the souls are equal no hierarchy nothing. All are part and parcel of the Lord. The moment this vikara jealousy, rivalry creeps in they are thrown back as they will be doing Vaishanav aparadh.
Just like what happened to Jaya Vijaya when they hurt the Sanat kumaras showing their pride that they are gate keepers of Vaikuntha. They are thrown back to the mortal world to correct themselves and get back again.
When someone does vaishnav aparadh they generally forget their original position and fall back to mortal world until they realize their mistake.
There is no vikaras like jealous, anger, greed, pride , lust, hate etc. in the Spiritual abode of Vaikuntha... All are serving Lord with bliss.
Soul are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord how can there be any differences.? Each part of the body of Lord is having its own significance right??
There is not time in Vaikunta all seem as if it is being happening right now. All are in complete bliss. They live in present. They don't ponder over past or plan for future.
They are all serving Lord completely manasa , vacha, karma and living in the present.. There is no time factor so
there is no old age, disease, death .. no hunger, no thirst.. Right now at that moment seeing Lord serving HIM there is not past minute or future minute.....only present moment.
SB 2.9.9 — The Personality of Godhead, being thus very much satisfied with the penance of Lord Brahmā, was pleased to manifest His personal abode, Vaikuṇṭha, the supreme planet above all others. This transcendental abode of the Lord is adored by all self-realized persons freed from all kinds of miseries and fear of illusory existence.
SB 2.9.10 — In that personal abode of the Lord, the material modes of ignorance and passion do not prevail, nor is there any of their influence in goodness. There is no predominance of the influence of time, so what to speak of the illusory, external energy; it cannot enter that region. Without discrimination, both the demigods and the demons worship the Lord as devotees.
The material body is overcast with five kinds of miserable conditions, namely ignorance, material conception, attachment, hatred and absorption. As long as one is overwhelmed by these five kinds of material miseries, there is no question of entering into the Vaikuṇṭhalokas.
When one is not in the modes of ignorance and passion, one is supposed to be situated in the mode of goodness in the material world. Goodness in the material world also at times becomes contaminated by touches of the modes of passion and ignorance. In the Vaikuṇṭhaloka, it is unalloyed goodness only,
As quoted by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, we can know from the Nārada-pañcarātra that the transcendental world or Vaikuṇṭha atmosphere is enriched with transcendental qualities.
However, the Spiritual abode of Goloka has all different types of rasas.
Srila Prabhupada said..Transcendental jealousy is not wrong but it is absolute. In the transcendental world there are jealous parties also like the party of Radharani and the party of Satyabhama. Radharani and Satyabhama are always jealous of one another but the center is Krishna. There are many material examples also. There are many political parties in a state but in spite of all political jealousies they are one in serving the state. Similarly Krishna being the center all competition and jealousies for serving Krishna the best is always Absolute provided such jealousies do not come down to the material plane.
Hare Krishna.
Hare Krsna Prabhuji,
PAMHO.
There is no hierarchy of soul. However, there are different categories - nitya siddha, sadhana siddha souls. Nitya siddha soul is eternal associate of the lord. Sadhana siddha is soul like us, who has been purified by the devotional process, and who has stayed with nitya siddha devotee in material world to become completely pure. To understand this better - suppose a soul has become a pure devotee in madhurya bhaav. Still to learn the etiquette and ways and mannerisms of the spiritual leela, this soul will be born in the brahmanda in which currently the lord's eternal pastimes of Raas Leela are taking place. There the soul will participate in the leela alongwith nitya siddha jivas and become completely purified devotee, eligible to go back home, back to Godhead.
Each soul in the spiritual world is having a spiritual body, so in that sense there is difference. Maybe a blade of grass, a kaamdhenu cow, a kalpataru vriksha, a gopi - but they all have spiritual bodies. To that extent, there is a difference.
In the spiritual world, there are definitely emotions. Otherwise how does one relate to Krsna. We relate to the lord in our different bhaav, which is emotion na.
Rivalry to do service is there in Vrindavan also prabhuji. One group of gopis led by Radharani and another by Chandravali. Therefore, there is rivalry to serve Krsna better.
Haribol,
Your servant,
Radha Rasamayi DD
Pls kindly accept my humble respects.
1)If you return back to the Godhead, and in Vaikuntha, are ALL SOULS EQUAL?
Equal means all will be souls only.
But of course there will be many devotees who will be senior to us because they are already engaged in the devotional service of the lord and we still on this earth prabhuji. Those devotees who r now currently serving krsna in vaikuntha, are serving krsna face to face.
They r our seniors.
2)or is there a hierarchy? ie a superior soul, inferior soul etc.
No, there will be no such heirarchiary.
There is no such concept of inferiority and superiority in spiritual world or on spiritual planets.
All the souls are children of God, all r the parts and parcels of the god, if there would be such a thing like inferior soul then krsna would not be considered superior, he would not be considered God because we all know the fact that we r parts and parcels of Lord, then now the question arises that if the lord is all superior in all aspects, then how can his child I.e. his part and parcel be inferior in any perspective, this is not possible so there is no such thing like and inferiority and superiority in spiritual world.
Superiority and inferiority are material concepts and can be applied in this material world in material terms for ex.
I m more talented than my friend that means I m superior than my friend and my friend is inferior.
So these things can be applied in world in material terms but in spiritual world in spiritual terms these inferiority and superiority concepts cannot be applied because the lord is above both the things, The Lord Is SIMPLY all TRANSCENDENTAL, and so his parts and parcels also.
3)will there be any difference of the soul?
Yes, there will be one difference and that difference is of bhakti, for ex. Is there any difference between u and ur senior? Or are u both equal??
It's not like that naa?
Ur senior has more knowledge than u,but that does not mean that u r inferior and ur senior is superior, right??
Because u perfectly know that one day u will also surely achieve that knowledge and perfection which ur senior has already attained.
In the same way there are also seniors in spiritual world, we have to learn from them how to serve krsna and do bhakti.
However in spiritua world noone is an stranger.
There everyone are like family members infact they r faimily members.
The whole world is like a family.
This Is SPIRITUALITY.
Whereas in material world , on this earth we see that our own wife is not ours, Not faithful, chaste and trustworthy.
What to speak of others.
So in spiritual world all souls are souls
They r simply TRANSCENDENTAL.
They al r unique, incredible, Fabulous and Marvelous.
But the difference exists .only of juniors and seniors. And NOTHING ELSE.
4)yes of course . Why not
They eat, they dance they play and enjoy.
They can do everything .
Also yes they have feeling.
Why not?
After all they are also living entities like us.
The only difference between them and us is that we possess a body made of blood,flesh,skin,urine,stool,hair,pus,mucus,etc. Which always falls victim to diseases and old age and death.
But the living entities in vaikuntha posses spiritual body which free of all the filthy things mentioned above.
And their body is sac-cid-anand which mesns Eternal, full of knowledge and Full of BLISS(Most perfect happiness). Which our body is not.
So the living entities in vaikuntha simply enjoy till Eternity as there are no miseries not even 0.000....1%