Adventures in Humility

News, Views, and Chews on spiritual issues.

Monday, April 30, 2007

Priti Sandarbha 11-12

Read here for background.

Priti Sandarbha 11 contains a little more detail about the form by which the liberated soul possesses:

Liberation is also described in these words of Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.6.28):

prayujyamAne mayi tAM
zuddhAM bhAgavatIM tanum
Arabdha-karma-nirvANo
nyapatat paJca-bhautikaH

"Having been awarded a transcendental body befitting an
associate of the Personality of Godhead, I quit the body made
of five material elements, and thus all acquired
fruitive results of work (karma) stopped."

It is again described in these words of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.6.23):

hitvAvadyam imaM lokaM
gantA maj-janatAm asi

"By service of the Absolute Truth, even for a few days,
a devotee attains firm and fixed intelligence in Me. Consequently
he goes to become My associate in the transcendental world after
giving up the present deplorable material worlds."

Jivapada's commentary: In Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.6.28 the Supreme Personality of Godhead promises to give the devotee a spiritual form like His own. Here "tAM bhAgavatIm" means "a form that is a fragment of the spiritual effulgence of the Supreme Lord", "zuddhAm" means "untouched by matter", "tanum" means "a form given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead", and "mayi prayujyamAne" means "attained by me when the results of karma came to an end". This happened when the material body made of five elements fell away (nyapatat paJca-bhautikaH). Here it is seen that the subtle material body of mind, intelligence, and false ego is also destroyed. Because of his faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the devotee's past karma also comes to an end. In his commentary on this verse Srila Sridhara Svami explains:

"The bodies of a personal associates of the Supreme Lord are eternal, pure, and free from karma."
This verse was spoken by Sri Narada to Sri Vyasa.

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Priti Sandarbha 12

The body of a liberated soul is also described in these words of Srimad-Bhagavatam (8.3.19):

yaM dharma-kAmArtha. . .rAty api deham avyayam

"After worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead, those who are interested in the four principles of religion, economic development, sense gratification and liberation obtain from Him what they desire. What, then, is be said of other benedictions? Indeed, sometimes the Lord gives a spiritual body to such ambitious worshipers."
Srila Sridhara Svami comments:

"In this way the Supreme Lord gives the devotee an eternal spiritual body."
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So this is very clear: After Anuccheda 10 confirms that the soul can manifest many forms and that the residents of Vaikuntha have forms alike to the Lord's, Anuccheda 11-12 confirms that such a form is bestowed. In this connection, "bestowed" and "attained" both refer to the same thing in the context of Gaudiya sadhana practice. It is not inherent in any case, scripturally speaking.

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