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ORIGINAL CONSCIOUSNESS.‏

When influenced by the modes of material nature, a living entity forgets this relationship and thinks in terms of different species of life; but when he again comes to his original consciousness, he does not observe such bodily designations. This is indicated in Bhagavad-gītā (5.18) by the words paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----4:21:12-----purport).

The devotees are representatives of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and to elevate the conditioned souls to their original consciousness, they travel all over the universes to enlighten the conditioned souls about Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----4:22:16-----purport).

When one deviates from his original consciousness, he loses the capacity to remember his previous position or recognize his present one. When remembrance is lost, all knowledge acquired is based on a false foundation. When this occurs, learned scholars consider that the soul is lost.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----4:22:31------translation).

The soul is said to be lost when there is no proper knowledge exhibited. Our original consciousness is Kṛṣṇa consciousness because we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. When this consciousness is misguided and one is put into the material atmosphere, which pollutes the original consciousness, one thinks that he is a product of the material elements. Thus one loses his real remembrance of his position as part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, just as a man who sleeps forgets himself.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----4:22:31-----purport).

Unless one can become free from the influence of passion and ignorance, he cannot be pacified, and without being pacified, one cannot understand the science of God. King Purañjana's returning home is indicative of man's returning to his original consciousness, known as Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----4:26:11-----purport).

The word sādhv-alaṅkṛta used in this verse indicates that one must be absorbed in knowledge gathered from the instructions of saintly persons. Just as King Purañjana began to search out his better half, the Queen, one who is decorated with knowledge and instructions from saintly persons should try to search out his original consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One cannot return to Kṛṣṇa consciousness unless he is favored by the instructions of a saintly person.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----4:26:12-----purport).

King Purañjana begged his Queen to return to her original beauty. He tried to revive her just as a living entity tries to revive his original consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which is very beautiful. All the beautiful features of the Queen could be compared to the beautiful features of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When one returns to his original Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he actually becomes steady, and his life becomes successful.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----4:26:23-----purport).

Here it is clearly stated: haṁso haṁsena pratibodhitaḥ. The individual soul and the Supersoul are both compared to swans (haṁsa) because they are white, or uncontaminated. One swan, however, is superior and is the instructor of the other. When the inferior swan is separated from the other swan, he is attracted to material enjoyment. This is the cause of his falldown. When he hears the instructions of the other swan, he understands his real position and is again revived to his original consciousness.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----4:28:64-----purport).

Thus one has to select a bona fide spiritual master and become enlightened to his original consciousness. In this way the individual soul can understand that he is always subordinate to the Supersoul. As soon as he declines to remain subordinate and tries to become an enjoyer, he begins his material conditioning. When he abandons this spirit of being an individual owner or enjoyer, he becomes situated in his liberated state.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----4:28:64-----purport).

The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is pushing forward the publication of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, as explained especially for the understanding of the modern civilized man, to awaken him to his original consciousness. Without this consciousness, one melts into complete darkness. Whether one goes to the upper planetary systems or the hellish planetary systems, he simply wastes his time. Therefore one should hear of the universal position of the virāṭ form of the Lord as described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That will help one save himself from material conditional life and gradually elevate him to the path of liberation so that he can go back home, back to Godhead.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----5:26:38-----purport).

Ordinary living beings assume material bodies, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead does not. Since the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the supreme consciousness, it is stated herein that saṁjñāna-mātram, the original consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, was unmanifested before the creation, although the consciousness of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the origin of everything. The Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā (2.12), "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." Thus the Lord's person is the Absolute Truth in the past, present and future.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----6:4:47-----purport).

The opulence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead remains as it is in the spiritual world; only in the material world is everything dissolved. Brahma-līna, merging into the Supreme Brahman, is not actual līna, or annihilation, for the subtle form remaining in the Brahman effulgence will return to the material world after the material creation and again assume a material form. This is described as bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate (B.G.8:19). When the material body is annihilated, the spirit soul remains in a subtle form, which later assumes another material body. This is true for the conditioned souls, but the Supreme Personality of Godhead remains eternally in His original consciousness and spiritual body.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----6:4:47-----purport).

As advised by Mahārāja Ṛṣabhadeva, na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ (S.B.5:5:4). One must be intelligent enough to understand that although one's body is temporary and will not endure for long, as long as one has a body he must undergo the pangs of material existence. Therefore, if by good association, by the instructions of a bona fide spiritual master, one takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, his conditional life of material existence is vanquished, and his original consciousness, known as Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is revived.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----7:7:27-----purport).

Atheistic rascals think that there is no God and that the creation has taken place by chance, just as a man and woman meet by chance and the woman becomes pregnant and gives birth to a child. Actually, however, this is not the fact. The fact is that there is a purpose for this creation: to give the conditioned soul a chance to return to his original consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and then return home, back to Godhead, and be completely happy in the spiritual world. In the material world the conditioned soul is given a chance to satisfy his senses, but at the same time he is informed by Vedic knowledge that this material world is not his actual place for happiness. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam (B.G.13:9). One must stop the repetition of birth and death. Every human being, therefore, should take advantage of this creation by understanding Kṛṣṇa and his relationship with Kṛṣṇa and in this way return home, back to Godhead.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----9:24:58-----purport).

The living entity is not a product of the material energy; he is spiritual energy, but in contact with matter he forgets his identity. Thus the living entity identifies himself with matter and enthusiastically engages in material activities in the guises of a technologist, scientist, philosopher, etc. He does not know that he is not at all a material product but is spiritual. His real identity thus being lost, he struggles very hard in the material world, and the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is trying to revive his original consciousness.
(Sri Caitanya Caritamrta-----1:7:118-----purport).

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura considers the brahma-bhūta stage in two divisions—svarūpa-gata and vastu-gata. One who has understood Kṛṣṇa in truth but is still maintaining some material connection is known to be situated in his svarūpa, his original consciousness. When that original consciousness is completely spiritual, it is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One who lives in such consciousness is actually living in Vṛndāvana. He may live anywhere; material location doesn’t matter. When by the grace of Kṛṣṇa one thus advances, he becomes completely uncontaminated by the material body and mind and at that time factually lives in Vṛndāvana. That stage is called vastu-gata.
(Sri Caitanya Caritamrta-----2:8:139-----purport).

It is stated that mercy is one of the qualities of a Buddhist, but mercy is a relative thing. We show our mercy to a subordinate or to one who is suffering more than ourselves. However, if there is a superior person present, the superior person cannot be the object of our mercy. Rather, we are objects for the mercy of the superior person. Therefore showing compassion and mercy is a relative activity. It is not the Absolute Truth. Apart from this, we also must know what actual mercy is. To give a sick man something forbidden for him to eat is not mercy. Rather, it is cruelty. Unless we know what mercy really is, we may create an undesirable situation. If we wish to show real mercy, we will preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness in order to revive the lost consciousness of human beings, the living entity's original consciousness. Since the Buddhist philosophy does not admit the existence of the spirit soul, the so-called mercy of the Buddhists is defective.
(Sri Caitanya Caritamrta-----2:9:49-----purport).

It is the spiritual master who delivers the disciple from the clutches of māyā by initiating him into the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. In this way a sleeping human being can revive his consciousness by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. In other words, the spiritual master awakens the sleeping living entity to his original consciousness so that he can worship Lord Viṣṇu. This is the purpose of dīkṣā, or initiation. Initiation means receiving the pure knowledge of spiritual consciousness.
(Sri Caitanya Caritamrta-----2:9:61-----purport).

The saṅkīrtana movement can be spread by a person who is especially favored by Lord Kṛṣṇa (kṛṣṇa-śakti vinā nahe tāra pravartana). Without first obtaining the mercy of the Lord, one cannot spread the holy name of the Lord. One who can spread the Lord's name is called labdha-caitanya in the words of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī. The labdha-caitanya is one who has actually awakened his original consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The influence of the pure devotees in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is such that it can awaken others to become immediately Kṛṣṇa conscious and engage themselves in the transcendental loving service of Kṛṣṇa. In this way the descendants of pure devotees increase, and Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu takes much pleasure in seeing the increase of His devotees.
(Sri Caitanya Caritamrta-----2:11:102-----purport).

Sakhya-bhakti-rasa is described as follows in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta sindhu (3.3.1):
sthāyi-bhāvo vibhāvādyaiḥ sakhyam ātmocitair iha
nītaś citte satāṁ puṣṭiṁ rasaḥ preyān udīryate
“According to one's original consciousness, ecstatic emotions may be exhibited as continuously existing in fraternity. When this stage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is mature, it is called preyo-rasa or sakhya-bhakti-rasa.”
(Sri Caitanya Caritamrta-----2:19:185-----purport).

It is here mentioned that every living entity is ātmārāma. Temporarily covered by the influence of māyā, the living entity serves his senses, which are represented as kāma-krodha-lobha-moha-mada-mātsarya—lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness and envy. In the material condition, all living entities are engaged in sense gratification, but when they associate with devotees who follow the regulative principles, they become purified and awakened to their original consciousness. They then attempt to satisfy the senses of Lord Kṛṣṇa and engage in His devotional service.
(Sri Caitanya Caritamrta-----2:24:202-----purport).

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