Some materially- inconceivable things- about the spiritual world
June 23, 2016 in Damaghosa Dasa by Damaghosa dasa
Submitted by: Damagosha Dasa
Hare Krsna-
What we have collected below are some small, tiny tidbits of nectar which somewhat and barely describe aspects of spiritual life, the spiritual body, and the spiritual world-and all are meant to re direct our attention from matter towards spirit.
Hari bol-hope you like them
damaghosa das
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Inconceivable things in the spiritual world-
Adi 5.22 purport
The residents of Vaikuṇṭha have brilliantly black complexions much more fascinating and attractive than the dull white and black complexions found in the material world. Their bodies, being spiritual, have no equals in the material world. The beauty of a bright cloud when lightning flashes on it merely hints at their beauty. Generally the inhabitants of Vaikuṇṭha dress in yellow clothing. Their bodies are delicate and attractively built, and their eyes are like the petals of lotus flowers. Like Lord Viṣṇu, the residents of Vaikuṇṭha have four hands decorated with a conchshell, wheel, club and lotus flower. Their chests are beautifully broad and fully decorated with necklaces of a brilliant diamond like metal surrounded by costly jewels never to be found in the material world. The residents of Vaikuṇṭha are always powerful and effulgent. Some of them have complexions like red coral cat’s eyes and lotus flowers, and each of them has earrings of costly jewels. On their heads they wear flowery crowns resembling garlands.
In the Vaikuṇṭhas there are airplanes, but they make no tumultuous sounds. Material airplanes are not at all safe: they can fall down and crash at any time, for matter is imperfect in every respect. In the spiritual sky, however, the airplanes are also spiritual, and they are spiritually brilliant and bright. These airplanes do not fly business executives, politicians or planning commissions as passengers, nor do they carry cargo or postal bags, for these are all unknown there. These planes are for pleasure trips only, and the residents of Vaikuṇṭha fly in them with their heavenly, beautiful, fairylike consorts. Therefore these airplanes, full of residentsof Vaikuṇṭha, both male and female, increase the beauty of the spiritual sky. We cannot imagine how beautiful they are, but their beauty may be compared to the clouds in the sky accompanied by silver branches of electric lightning. The spiritual sky of Vaikuṇṭhaloka is always decorated in this way.
The bestial civilization of eating, sleeping, fearing and sense-gratifying has misled modern man into forgetting how powerful a soul he has. As we have already described, the soul is a spiritual spark many, many times more illuminating, dazzling and powerful than the sun, moon or electricity. Human life is spoiled when man does not realize his real identity with his soul. LordCaitanya appeared with Lord Nityānanda to save man from this type of misleading civilization.
KB 1-13
Therefore in order to satisfy the mothers of His friends as well as to convince Brahmā of the supremacy of the Personality of Godhead, He immediately expanded Himself as the cowherd boys and calves. In the Vedas it is said that the Supreme Personality of Godhead expands Himself in so many living entities by His energy. Therefore it was not very difficult for Him to expand Himself again into so many boys and calves. He expanded Himself to become exactly like the boys, who were of all different features, facial and bodily construction, and who were different in their clothing and ornaments and in their behavior and personal activities. In other words, everyone has different tastes; being individual soul, each person has entirely different activities and behavior. Yet Kṛṣṇa exactly expanded Himself into all the different positions of the individual boys. He also became the calves, who were also of different sizes, colors, activities, etc. This was possible because everything is an expansion of Kṛṣṇa’s energy.
Below we have some very interesting things presented by-Srila Prabhupada, where he kindly explains some of the materially inconceivable aspects of actual spirit life.
For example-he tells us of trees in Vaikuntha that can move from one place to another,
or about Srila Gadadhara Pandit who was considered the incarnation of Radharani and her luster was the incarnation of Gadadhara das,or when we spiritualize our eating process, any part of our body will be able to eat,or how we will be able to change spiritual forms like from a flower to a human form. Etc.
ADI 9.32 purport
It is our experience in the material world that trees stand in one place, but in the spiritual world a tree can go from one place to another. Therefore everything in the spiritual world is called alaukika, uncommon or transcendental. Another feature of such a tree is that it can act universally. In the material world the roots of a tree go deep within the earth to gather food, but in the spiritual world the twigs, branches and leaves of the upper portion of the tree can act like the roots.ADI 10.53 purport
Śrīla Gadādhara dāsa was known as an inhabitant of this village (eṅḍiyādaha-vāsī gadādhara dāsa). The Bhakti-ratnākara (Seventh Wave), informs us that after the disappearance of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Gadādhara dāsa came from Navadvīpa to Katwa. Thereafter he came to Eṅḍiyādaha and resided there.
It is our experience in the material world that trees stand in one place, but in the spiritual world a tree can go from one place to another. Therefore everything in the spiritual world is called alaukika, uncommon or transcendental. Another feature of such a tree is that it can act universally. In the material world the roots of a tree go deep within the earth to gather food, but in the spiritual world the twigs, branches and leaves of the upper portion of the tree can act like the roots.ADI 10.53 purport
Śrīla Gadādhara dāsa was known as an inhabitant of this village (eṅḍiyādaha-vāsī gadādhara dāsa). The Bhakti-ratnākara (Seventh Wave), informs us that after the disappearance of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Gadādhara dāsa came from Navadvīpa to Katwa. Thereafter he came to Eṅḍiyādaha and resided there.
He is stated to be the luster of the body of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, just as Śrīla Gadādhara Paṇḍita Gosvāmī is an incarnation of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī Herself. Caitanya Mahāprabhu is sometimes explained to be rādhā-bhāva-dyuti-suvalita, or characterized by the emotions and bodily luster of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. Gadādhara dāsa is this dyuti, or luster.TLC introduction-–
The Brahma-saṁhitā also confirms that the spiritual body of the Supreme Lord is so powerful that any part of that body can perform the functions of any other part. We can only touch with our hands or skin, but Kṛṣṇa can touch just by glancing. We can only see with our eyes, we cannot touch or smell with them. Kṛṣṇa, however, can smell and also eat with His eyes. When foodstuffs are offered to Kṛṣṇa we don’t see Him eating, but He eats simply by glancing at the food. We cannot imagine how things work in the spiritual world where everything is spiritual. It is not that Kṛṣṇa does not eat or that we imagine that He eats; He actually eats, but His eating is different from ours. Our eating process will be similar to His when we are completely on the spiritual platform. On that platform every part of the body can act on behalf of any other partMelborne May 20 1975
Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, you were saying that because the body has arms and legs, then the coat has a similar shape. Then does the spirit soul that’s within our body have arms and legs like that?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Devotee (1): Would the spirit soul that is within, say, a cow’s body, is in a different shape?
Prabhupāda: Yes. It has got also legs. But the shape has taken according to his desire. Every animal has got these four things. Just like bird, it has got two wings, two legs. The animal has got four legs. And the man has got two hands, two legs. So the same parts of the body, they are appearing in a different type. But the four limbs of the body are there. Hm?
Devotee (2): Is the original body of the spirit soul a human form?
Madhudviṣa: The question is that whether the eternal form of the spirit soul is a human form or is it…
Prabhupāda: Yes, human form. God is also human form. “Man is made after the shape of God.” I think there is in the Bible. Is it not? So God is also like human form. Here you see Kṛṣṇa, two hands, two legs.
Hari-śauri: How do we understand, then, that there are peacocks and flowers and trees in the spiritual world? Are these not eternal forms?
Prabhupāda: Yes. They are more covered. Just like if you cover your body with blanket, the hands and legs are invisible. But you are not the blanket. So the trees and plants, they are more covered. They are not in full manifestation. The human form is the full manifestation of the soul.
Hari-śauri: They are covered in the spiritual world?
Madhudviṣa: He is asking if they were actually covered in the spiritual world as well.
Prabhupāda: Not in the spiritual world. There that is voluntary. Some devotee wants to serve Kṛṣṇa as flower; they become flower there. If I want that “As a flower I shall lie down at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa,” he becomes flower, voluntarily. And he can change his…, from flower to human body. That is spiritual life. There is no restriction. If some devotee wants to serve Kṛṣṇa as cow, he serves Kṛṣṇa as cow, as calf, as flower, as plant, as water, as ground, field, or as father, as mother, as friend, as beloved, anything. Ye yathā mām prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham [Bg. 4.11]. That is Kṛṣṇa’s all-powerfulness, spiritual life.
Hon may 10 1976–
The injunction is that tad viddhi, if you want to understand transcendental subject matter, not material, spiritual… Spiritual is completely unknown to us because we do not know what is spiritual. We are identifying with this body. You do not know even that “I am spirit soul.” So where is the possibility of spiritual understanding? One cannot see himself, what he is. He is thinking, “I am this body,” exactly like the dog. The dog is thinking, “I am dog.” So if I think, “I am American,” “I am Indian,” where is the difference? There is no difference. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke [SB 10.84.13]. If one thinks that “I am this body,” then he’s no better than sa eva go-kharaḥ. The animals, they also think like that, “I am this body.”
Bombay Nov 17 1974–
This is self-realization. Self-realization means to see one’s proper identity. At the present moment we are not finding out our proper identity. We are seeing to the body. I see you, your body, and you see me, my body. We have no vision of the real person, which is, who is occupying this body. This is the first lesson we get from Bhagavad-gītā: dehino ‘smin yathā dehe [Bg. 2.13]. Dehi… This body is called deha, and the owner of the body is called dehī….So when we can see that we are not this body, “I am not this body,” that is beginning of self-realization. That is called brahma-bhūta [SB 4.30.20] stage. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi: “I am not this material body.” Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. This is self-realization.
ADI 7.148
The complete path of bhakti-yoga is based upon the process of becoming humble and submissive. By the grace of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, all the Māyāvādī sannyāsīs were very humble and submissive after hearing His explanation of the Vedānta-sūtra, and they begged to be pardoned for the offenses they had committed by criticizing the Lord for simply chanting and dancing and not taking part in the study of the Vedānta-sūtra. We are propagating the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement simply by following in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. We may not be very well versed in the Vedānta-sūtra aphorisms and may not understand their meaning, but we follow in the footsteps of the ācāryas, and because of our strictly and obediently following in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, it is to be understood that we know everything regarding the Vedānta-sūtra.
TLC chapter 32-
Lord Caitanya then passed ten nights with Rāmānanda Rāya, enjoyed his company and discussed the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā. The discussions between them were on the highest level of love for Kṛṣṇa. Some of these talks are described, but most of them could not be described. In Caitanya-caritāmṛta this has been compared to metallurgic examination. The metals compared are discussed in the following sequence: first copper, then bronze, then silver, gold and at last touchstone. The preliminary discussions between Lord Caitanya and Rāmānanda Rāya are considered to be like copper, and the higher discussions are considered to be like gold. The fifth dimension of their discussions, however, is considered to be like touchstone. If one is eager to attain the highest understanding, he must begin with an inquiry into the differences between copper and bronze, then silver and gold and so on.
SB 10.15.34 purport
(Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 3.2.3):“The Supreme Lord is not obtained by expert explanations, by vast intelligence, or even by much hearing. He is obtained only by one whom He Himself chooses. To such a person, He manifests His own form.”
(Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 3.2.3):“The Supreme Lord is not obtained by expert explanations, by vast intelligence, or even by much hearing. He is obtained only by one whom He Himself chooses. To such a person, He manifests His own form.”
CHANTING DANCING AND FEASTING- I’M IN, WHAT COULD BE EASIER??
MOST OF THE INGREDIENTS ABOVE CAME FROM KRSNA’S GARDENS
