Question: Are there a precise number of souls at the beginning of creation, or do the souls multiply? Answer: Do you mean to ask, at the beginning of this particular creation? This is not the first creation but the latest one. Creation follows dissolution, and then it repeats. The cycle of creation and dissolution has
Question: In Siddhānta-ratnam (1.33) Śrī Baladeva says: The conclusion here is this—jñāna (knowledge) is a synonym of the words vidyā and vedana, and it is twofold. One kind is in the form of realization of the meaning of the words tat and tvam in the sentence tat tvam asi (“you are that”), and it is
The jīva is conditioned by avidyā, which has no beginning—anādi-avidyā-yuktasya puruṣasya (SB 11.22.10). There was never a time that the jīva was not under the influence of avidyā. The interesting fact is that like the conditioning of avidyā, the jīva also has vidyā without a beginning. Vidyā here means the awareness of being a conscious
Question: Would you please explain about spiritual body of the jīva? When the jīva enters spiritual realm of Kṛṣṇa, does the soul get a beautiful spiritual body? Or does the soul already possess such an eternal body, which is with us right now? Answer: The soul does not possess any body. It is formless. It
The following Questions and Answers are not included in the Jiva Tattva book. Question: In the first prayer of the Vedas to Śrī Kṛṣṇa (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.87.14, translation by Bhanu Swami), it is said—aga-jagad-okasām akhila-śakty-avabodhaka te, “You who awaken all the energies of the moving and nonmoving embodied beings …” In this connection, Śrī Viśvanātha
Advaita-vādīs raise an objection to this necessity of accepting illuminating power (dharma-bhūta jñāna) as a quality possessed by ātmā: “Consciousness (jñāna) cannot be the shelter of another consciousness (jñāna). So, how can the conscious self possess the quality of consciousness (jñāna)?” The sense of this objection is that an attribute does not have attributes. Attributes
Verse Six evaṁ parābhidhyānena kartṛtvaṁ prakṛteḥ pumān karmasu kriyamāṇeṣu guṇair ātmāni manyate Prakṛti is the entity that carries out material activities, but the ātmā thinks that the deeds done by prakṛti’s guṇas are his own deeds, because he completely absorbs his self identification in her. Evam (“in this way”) refers to ātmā’s condition, described in
