The Paradox of the Soul: Affected Yet Unaffected

(written on August 16, 2019)

(References: SB 1.7.5-6)

The soul is transcendental but it can get affected by the modes of material nature by falsely identifying itself with the body. Krishna says in SB 1.7.5 that “Due to this external energy, the living entity, although transcendental to the three modes of material nature, thinks of himself as a material product and thus undergoes the reactions of material miseries.” The problem is that we forget our eternal constitutional position. Our position is explained in BG 15.7 by Lord Krishna, “The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.” Once we forget our eternal position, we become influenced by the three modes of material nature, and they act upon us respectively. Specifically, the soul gets covered by the false ego, mind, intelligence, and the body and forgets its eternal position. The three modes affect the self: the mode of goodness causes one to have temporary happiness, the mode of passion causes one to overachieve, and the mode of ignorance causes one to become delusioned (BG 14.6-8). We can get back out of this influence of the modes and understand our eternal constitutional position by understanding the points for how to see correctly, or real philosophy. Philosophy as per Sanskrit means understanding the constitutional position of the soul. This is explained in BG 13.24, “One who understands this philosophy concerning material nature, the living entity and the interaction of the modes of nature is sure to attain liberation. He will not take birth here again, regardless of his present position.” The points of philosophy are as follows:

1. The Supersoul accompanies the individual soul in all bodies and the body is destructible but the individual soul and Supersoul are eternal.

2. The Supersoul is equally present everywhere in all living entities.

3. All activities are performed by the body which is created of material nature and the self (soul) actually does nothing.

4. One must not see different identities due to different material bodies and must understand how beings are expanded everywhere.

5. The soul is transcendental, eternal, and is beyond the modes of material nature. (even though it is in contact with the material body, the soul neither does anything, nor is entangled by the modes of nature).

6. The soul which is situated in Brahman vision does not mix with the body despite being situated in the body.

7. The soul, not matter, illuminates the body by consciousness.

So, the living entity actually suffers when it forgets about its real position. However, once it understands these points, it becomes self realized and no longer suffers from the three modes of material nature because it understands the eternal position. We must also perform devotional service. This is explained in SB 1.7.6 “The material miseries of the living entity, which are superfluous to him, can be directly mitigated by the linking process of devotional service. But the mass of people do not know this, and therefore the learned Vyāsadeva compiled this Vedic literature, which is in relation to the Supreme Truth.” In simpler words, Krishna says that the material miseries of the soul, which are too much to him, can be handled by performing devotional service. This is the most important point for making sure that that soul does not get affected by the material nature.