Lord Krishna, Supersoul, Spirit Soul, Japa and Bhaktiyoga
Veerendra Ekbote
In Bhagvad Gita Lord Krishna is referred as Bhagvan. The Sanskrit word Bhagvan arises from the 2 words of Bhag i.e. opulences and van i.e. one who possesses these opulences completely and in totality. The 6 opulences of the Supreme Lord are fame, beauty, wealth, strength, knowledge and renunciation. The individual Spirit Soul may or may not posses these 6 opulences in totality as like the Supreme Lord since he is the part and parcel of the Supersoul and the Supreme Lord. Lord Krishna delivered his message of Bhagvad Gita not only to Arjun but he wanted to awaken the dormant consciousness of all the living entities from their conditioned state and eventually make them fit unto the path of Self realization wherein they can revive their original Krishna conscious nature and return back to the Spiritual world. In the Bhagvad Gita the Supreme Lord Krishna wonderfully explains the purpose of human life that of surrendering to his lotus feet and get freed from the repeated cycle of birth and death and not get influenced by the 3 modes of material nature while performing devotional service – Bhakti unto him throughout their life by the process of chanting and remembering.
The individual Spirit Soul prior to becoming conditioned under the 3 modes of material nature was in its original Satchidanand state of eternity, bliss and knowledge in the Spiritual world (Vaikuntha) and was eternally serving the Supreme Lord Krishna in loving service and devotion in the Spiritual world based on his Rasa and Bhava.
Since the individual Spirit Soul belongs to the marginal potency of the Supreme Lord Krishna (Tathastha Shakti) and has the choice to either remain away from the Supreme Lord in the material world or to remain with the Supreme Lord in the Spiritual world, the fallen Spirit Soul after remaining away from the Supreme Lord in the material world takes innumerable births until he achieves the human from of life in which he gets the opportunity to revive his original Krishna consciousness by accepting a Spiritual master, practicing devotional service, read scriptures like Bhagvad Gita and Bhagvat Purana which makes him aware of his real Self and of his relationship with the Supreme Lord and gradually he starts associating with Krishna conscious devotees who practice Krishna Bhakti and are unto the path of Self-realization or those who accept Krishna to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Throughout his life by practicing Vaidhi Bhakti or 9 types of devotional service a devotee or a Self-realized Spirit Soul gradually transcends the 3 modes of material nature by the mercy of the Supreme Lord and by the grace of his spiritual master. Based on his surrender and devotional service to the Supreme Lord the individual Soul eventually achieves his original constitutional position once again after attaining the Spiritual world wherein he eternally associates and serves the Supreme Lord as per his Rasa and Bhava in the Spiritual world. The Supreme Lord also reciprocates with the individual Soul as per the grade of loving devotion and surrender of his devotee in the Spiritual world. After attaining the Spiritual world the individual Spirit Soul doesn’t suffer any material miseries of repeated birth and death as he stays eternally in the self luminous Spiritual world of the Supreme Lord Hari or Krishna and achieves a Spiritual indestructible Satchidanand body wherein he never returns back to the material world which is temporary and full of miseries as is confirmed by Lord Krishna in the Bhagvad Gita.
It is the individual Spirit Soul’s free will that makes him act independently from the Supreme Lord and he becomes fallen and conditioned under the 3 modes of material nature. Under the influence of material nature or Maya which is the illusory potency of the Supreme Lord the Spirit Soul lords himself due to which he is compelled to accept various types of material bodies based on his desires and Karmic actions and their reactions into the 8400000 species until the time he achieves the rare human birth by the mercy of Lord Krishna. The false ego present within the material body of a living entity creates bodily identification and makes the individual Spirit Soul forgetful of his real Self and of his relationship with the Super soul who is following him in his every birth and is neutrally monitoring his activities. Thus the false ego makes the living entity falsely misidentify with his temporary material body and makes him unaware about the eternal Spirit Soul present within him and about the presence and relationship of the Super Soul who is eternally present within his Spirit Soul as the representative of Lord Krishna and who is constantly following him in all his innumerable births. Thus the presence of false ego in the living entity and the influence of Maya stops the process of Self-realization for the individual Spirit Soul. The only way to become self realized and to stop the influence of Maya is to surrender to Lord Krishna by the process of chanting of holy names and practicing devotional service – Bhakti which helps in reviving our dormant Krishna conscious nature and making us aware of our real self as we surrender our false ego to Lord Krishna in loving devotion and steadily the Supreme Lord takes charge of the living entity. Thus in Bhaktiyoga or by performing Japa or chanting there is a simultaneous process occuring in which Maya and false ego doesn’t act upon the devotee and Krishna takes charge of his devotee and helps him transcend the 3 modes of material nature and escape the cycle of repeated birth and death.
Lord Krishna thus created this material world for all such individual Souls who wanted to remain away from the Supreme lord because of their free will and to act independent of the Supreme Lord. The fallen individual Spirit Souls according to their desires take birth in a particular material body and are placed under the influence of material energy (Maya or Bahiranga Shakti) of the Supreme Lord until the time they surrender to the Supreme Lord and return back to the spiritual world by his mercy. Whenever the Spirit soul surrenders to Krishna in devotion (Bhakti), the illusory energy Maya of the Supreme Lord slowly ceases to act upon the Jiva or living entity and the Supreme Lord takes charge of the devotee and makes him fit to escape the cycle of repeated birth and death. In the material world for the fallen conditioned Souls Lord Krishna has prescribed the process of Japa or chanting of his holy names – Hare Krishna Mahamantra which is the Yugadharma of Kaliyuga and to escape the repeated cycle of birth and death. Regular chanting of the Hare Krishna Japa makes our consciousness aware about the process of self-realization automatically and we get attracted to the process of knowing the Supreme Lord Krishna through loving devotion which is the easiest way in Kaliyuga to surrender to the Supreme Lord Krishna by constantly worshipping, thinking and remembering the Supreme Lord.
Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu personally appeared 500 years ago along with his associates in Bengal to spread the congregrational chanting of the holy names by spreading the principles of Bhaktiyoga or devotion to Lord Krishna and revived the dormant Krishna consciousness of the fallen conditioned souls in the age of Kaliyuga. Lord Chaitanya was Lord Krishna himself in the form of devotee and he exemplified devotional service by becoming a devotee of Krishna by the chanting of the holy names – Hare Krishna Mahamantra and spread it amongst the masses. Lord Krishna in 10th chapter also gives importance to chanting of the holy names to revive our consciousness. In Bhaktiyoga along with chanting, devotees regularly worship deities, fast on Ekadashi, read Vaishnav scriptures like Bhagvad Gita and Bhagvat Purana, follow in the footsteps of previous Acharyas, associate with devotees and visit Holy places like Mathura, Vrindavan wherein they purify their consciousness by which they slowly transcend the modes of material nature and by the mercy of the Supreme Lord return back to the Spiritual world.
|| Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare |
| Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare ||
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