It's said in Gita that we are part and parcel of the supreme soul and after death, a few do merge with the Supersoul i.e. complete freedom from the cycle of birth and death which depends on a lot of factors. Why were the souls created in the first place then? I have heard some people saying that Lord was getting bored and so he created human beings but I personally don't support this theory since I feel Lord is complete and he is perfect so he does not need anyone for his entertainment. That theory implies that Lord was lacking something which is completely untrue. So why did the Lord create human's when he was not feeling lonely? Also, why did the lord not remained as one soul and why did he distribute his souls in all of us? Like why were we created in the first place? The lord could have remained as one soul and not made all of us.
Lord created the earth and other planets and sent us here on earth and did all the necessary arrangements for us since we all are his children. But if the lord did not divide his soul into several parts there would have been no human beings and other living beings. There was no need to create the earth and other planets then. Why did the lord create us then?
I know this is a question which is very confusing and the majority does not know the real reason behind it. Please enlighten me regarding the same.
Replies
Achintya-bhedabheda-tattva refers to the inconceivable oneness and difference of the Supreme Person and His energies. This is one of the key points of theistic philosophy taught by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. As parts of God's energy, we're also equal in quality with God, but there's a vast difference in quantity. We're each infinitesimal sparks of spiritual energy, and the Supreme Person, Krishna, is the infinite, supreme source of all energies.
Some parts of the Vedas say that all beings are one with God, and others say that God is different from all beings. Vedanta philosophers have long argued back and forth about this, but Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught that both statements are simultaneously true.
Just as the sun is the source of heat and light, God is the ultimate source of all energy. The sun is inseparable from its rays, and God is inseparable from His energies. God and His energies are therefore nondifferent. At the same time, God and His energies are distinct. The sun and its rays are one, but they're also different: we can feel the sun's light and heat while the sun itself is millions of miles away.
Similarly, God is omnipresent by His energy but also maintains His distinct personal identity – His own name, form, qualities, home, activities, and associates. Since everything is a display of God's energy, God is simultaneously different (bheda) and nondifferent (abheda) from everything. This truth (tattva) is inconceivable (achintya) to the mundane mind. All that exists within the spiritual world and the material world is also God's energy, and therefore one with and different from God simultaneously.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead expands Himself into many. In order to enjoy bliss more and more, the Supreme Lord expands Himself in different categories. As mentioned in the Varāha Purāṇa,
He expands Himself in viṣṇu-tattva (the svāṁśa expansion) and in His marginal potency (the vibhinnāṁśa, or the living entity). These expanded living entities are innumerable, just as the minute molecules of sunshine are innumerable expansions of the sun. The vibhinnāṁśa expansions, the marginal potencies of the Lord, are the living entities.
When the living entities desire to enjoy themselves, they develop a consciousness of duality and come to hate the service of the Lord. In this way the living entities fall into the material world. In the Prema-vivarta it is said:
kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga-vāñchā kare
nikaṭa-stha māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare
The natural position of the living entity is to serve the Lord in a transcendental loving attitude. When the living entity wants to become Kṛṣṇa Himself or imitate Kṛṣṇa, he falls down into the material world.
Since Kṛṣṇa is the supreme father, His affection for the living entity is eternal. When the living entity falls down into the material world, the Supreme Lord, through His svāṁśa expansion (Paramātmā), keeps company with the living entity. In this way the living entity may some day return home, back to Godhead.
By misusing his independence, the living entity falls down from the service of the Lord and takes a position in this material world as an enjoyer. That is to say, the living entity takes his position within a material body.
Wanting to take a very exalted position, the living entity instead becomes entangled in a repetition of birth and death. He selects his position as a human being, a demigod, a cat, a dog, a tree, etc. In this way the living entity selects a body out of the 8,400,000 forms and tries to satisfy himself by a variety of material enjoyment.
The Supersoul, however, does not like him to do this. Consequently, the Supersoul instructs him to surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord then takes charge of the living entity. But unless the living entity is uncontaminated by material desires, he cannot surrender to the Supreme Lord.
The Supreme Lord is the supreme friend of everyone; however, no one can take advantage of the supreme friend’s instructions while making his own plans to become happy and entangling himself in the modes of material nature.
When there is creation, the living entities take on different forms according to past desires. This means that all the species or forms of life are simultaneously created. Darwin’s theory stating that no human being existed from the beginning but that humans evolved after many, many years is simply a nonsensical theory.
From Vedic literature we find that the first creature within the universe is Lord Brahmā. Being the most intelligent personality, Lord Brahmā could take charge of creating all the variety found within this material world.
(Link to this page: https://prabhupadabooks.com/sb/4/28/53 )purport..
O scion of Bharata, O conqueror of the foe, all living entities are born into delusion, bewildered by dualities arisen from desire and hate. ( BG 7.27) .. This is an explanation of how the living entity falls down into this material world.
Prabhupāda:------"Brahmajyoti is combination of jīva soul. And brahmajyoti is emanation from Kṛṣṇa. Brahmajyoti is coming from Kṛṣṇa. This is a function. Heat is coming constantly, incessantly, from the fire. But still, heat is not fire. You cannot say heat is fire. Fire is far away."
I create after the Lord’s creation by His personal effulgence [known as the brahmajyoti], just as when the sun manifests its fire, the moon, the firmament, the influential planets and the twinkling stars also manifest their brightness.( SB.2.5.11) Purport.....
Brahmājī has also separately given this statement in the saṁhitā known as the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.40), where he says:
yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-
koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam
tad brahma niṣkalam anantam aśeṣa-bhūtaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
“I serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose transcendental bodily effulgence, known as the brahmajyoti, which is unlimited, unfathomed and all-pervasive, is the cause of the creation of unlimited numbers of planets, etc., with varieties of climates and specific conditions of life.”
Therefore the potent seed of all creation is the brahmajyoti, and the same brahmajyoti, unlimited and unfathomed, is established by the Lord.
One should not expect the Lord to create like a blacksmith with a hammer and other instruments. The Lord creates by His potencies. He has His multifarious potencies (parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate). Just as the small seed of a banyan fruit has the potency to create a big banyan tree, the Lord disseminates all varieties of seeds by His potent brahmajyoti (sva-rociṣā), and the seeds are made to develop by the watering process of persons like Brahmā.
Please go thru the above text carefully...
Hare Krishna.
Providing some references to the reply given by Bhanu Kiran Pr
1. "It's said in Gita that we are part and parcel of the supreme soul and after death, a few do merge with the Supersoul"
Nowhere in Bhagavad Gita does Lord Sri Krsna or Arjuna say that soul merges with supersoul. Contrarily Soul and Supersoul are eternally distinct and can never merge. Lord Sri Krsna says this in the following verse
na tv evāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ
na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ
na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ
sarve vayam ataḥ param
Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be. (BG 2.12)
Krsna many times that soul can be liberated from cycle of birth and death and attain spiritual world, but that does not mean merging.
Like in this verse
man-manā bhava mad-bhakto
mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru
mām evaiṣyasi satyaṁ te
pratijāne priyo ’si me
Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend. BG 18.65
Here again Lord Sri Krsna says that soul can get a destination where Sri Krsna is personally and eternally present. But it is not merging. It is more like entering a palace of a rich man. Just because a wealthy man allows someone inside his mansion does not mean two people have merged.
2. "Why were the souls created in the first place then?"
Lord Sri Krsna says that soul is not created in BG
na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin
nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato ’yaṁ purāṇo
na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre
For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain. (BG 2.20)
So clearly soul is not created. Soul is eternally separated part of parcel of Sri Krsna.
3. " That theory implies that Lord was lacking something which is completely untrue. "
As a matter of fact there can be no theories pertaining to the Supreme personality of Absolute truth Sri Krsna. Hence all theories are untrue/bogus. There is only one way proper way to know Sri Krsna, which the supreme lord Himself says in BG as
bhaktyā mām abhijānāti
yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ
tato māṁ tattvato jñātvā
viśate tad-anantaram
One can understand Me as I am, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of Me by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God. (BG 18.55)
So all such theories can be rejected.
4. why did the lord not remained as one soul and why did he distribute his souls in all of us? -> Theory to be rejected
5. But if the lord did not divide his soul into several parts there would have been no human beings and other living beings. -> Theory to be rejected
6. "I know this is a question which is very confusing and the majority does not know the real reason behind it. Please enlighten me regarding the same. "
If we carefully read Bhagavad Gita As it is written by Srila Prabhupada it can be easily understood.
Sri Krsna is the origin of everything, everyone and every being. Sri Krsa is always complete.
Soul was not created. Soul is eternally part and parcel of Sri Krsna. Living entity has a choice whether to serve Sri Krsna or to exploit and enjoy separately from Sri Krsna. When we make the right choice we will be liberated and attain a destination with Sri Krsna where we can serve Sri Krsna intimately and eternally.
Hare Krsna
Where does all souls go at the time of devastation? and where all souls present before the creation of universe?
kṣetrajña ātmā puruṣaḥ purāṇaḥ
sākṣāt svayaṁ jyotir ajaḥ pareśaḥ
nārāyaṇo bhagavān vāsudevaḥ
sva-māyayātmany avadhīyamānaḥ
yathānilaḥ sthāvara-jaṅgamānām
ātma-svarūpeṇa niviṣṭa īśet
evaṁ paro bhagavān vāsudevaḥ
kṣetrajña ātmedam anupraviṣṭaḥ
There are two kinds of kṣetrajña — the living entity, as explained above, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is explained as follows. He is the all-pervading cause of creation. He is full in Himself and is not dependent on others. He is perceived by hearing and direct perception. He is self-effulgent and does not experience birth, death, old age or disease. He is the controller of all the demigods, beginning with Lord Brahmā. He is called Nārāyaṇa, and He is the shelter of living entities after the annihilation of this material world. He is full of all opulences, and He is the resting place of everything material. He is therefore known as Vāsudeva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By His own potency, He is present within the hearts of all living entities, just as the air or vital force is within the bodies of all beings, moving and nonmoving. In this way He controls the body. In His partial feature, the Supreme Personality of Godhead enters all bodies and controls them. (SB 1.11.13-14)
As described in the above verse Supreme Lord Sri Narayana is the shelter of all living entities during annihilation. At time creation the living entities are again enter material nature through glance of Narayana. Specifically it is Sri Maha-Visnu or Sri Karanodakasayi Vishnu.
Hare Krsna