Recently a discussion developed between members of the Gaudiya Math/ISKCON and the traditional parivars (lineages).
The topic was about the spiritual body, also known as “siddha-deha”.
Now, there is a fundamental difference in both approaches.
“Each and every living entity has an individual spiritual body (siddha-deha). As such we also have our own individual spiritual body, but it has not manifested yet; it is in a seed stage.
Just as a tree is contained within a seed, our transcendental body with all its belonging qualities now exists in seedform.”
This is the common understanding and the siddhanta of many stalwart Gaudiya Math/ISKCON-devotees.
We as members of the traditional parivars have a different approach to this delicate subject matter.
The living entity is by its very own nature the marginal energy of Krishna, called “tatashta-sakti”.
Krishna “possesses” 3 kinds of energies or “saktis”.
- His “INNER” energy (cit-sakti) made of
- sandhini-sakti (existence)
- samvit-sakti (knowledge)
- hladini-sakti (bliss)
- His “MARGINAL” energy (tatashta-sakti)
- His “EXTERNAL” energy (bahiranga-sakti)
Now, the living entity belongs to the “MARGINAL” energy and is inbetween the “INNER” and “EXTERNAL” energy.
Since the living entity, the spiritual soul, is a “drop of consciousness” (cit-con), it can be conscious of the material nature and identify with it or it can be conscious of the spiritual nature and identify with it.
cit-kana – jiva, krishna – cinmaya bhaskara
nitya krishne dekhi – krishne karena adara
– Prema-vivarta 6.1
The jiva (the spiritual soul) is an infinitesimal particle of spiritual consciousness, like an atomic particle of light emanating from the sun. Sri Krishna is the complete spiritual consciousness, the transcendental sun. When the jivas focus their attention on Krishna, they go to Him.
This is what we call “turning towards Krishna”. It is the beginning of our spiritual life.
When we realize: “Ooooops, actually I don´t belong here. Who am I? Where should I go? What should I do?”
This spiritual drop of consciousness “sits” in our “material” heart.
The soul is in the heart and the Vedas give us information about the size of that little “drop of consciousness”.
When we begin to understand that we are not this body, made from the “EXTERNAL” energy, but we are the eternal spiritual soul, made from the “MARGINAL” energy, then we will search for all these answers to our innermost questions (see above).
Since the spiritual soul is just a “tiny” drop of consciousness, the “EXTERNAL” energy, also called “MAYA”, can overwhelm the soul.
This happens through the faculty of the “FALSE EGO”. The spiritual drop of consciousness (the soul) identifies with the material body and tries to become “the Krishna of this material world”.
When by the grace of Krishna we encounter holy people (sadhus) and when they teach us the answers to all our questions, we can start PRACTICING spiritual life. This is called bhakti-yoga, serving Krishna in love and devotion.
Now, this “BHAKTI”-energy is a very mysterious energy.
It is a combination of two energies of Krishna.
“Bhakti” is “made of” samvit-sakti (knowledge/realization) and hladini-sakti (bliss). Ultimately BHAKTI rests in the heart of the personification of Krishna´s innermost energy, Srimati Radharani.
This BHAKTI is not originally in the “heart” of the living entity. BHAKTI is “originating” from Krishna´s innermost energy and the spiritual soul is from the marginal energy. So by definition, BHAKTI can not be “already” in the heart of the spiritual soul.
BUT: The spiritual soul has the “potency” to love. We can love through our false ego and we can love through our real ego, the drop of spiritual consciousness.
When this spiritual drop of consciousness (the spiritual soul) comes into contact with the BHAKTI-energy, the soul will be on the path to realize where it really belongs to.
BHAKTI can only be received from someone who has already received BHAKTI. It is said that BHAKTI flows down from the spiritual world (Krishna´s inner energy) to the material realm through the riverbed of an unbroken Guru-parampara. Now Guru-tattva comes into play.
In our tradition, the Nityananda-parivar, we can see that Sriman Nityananda Prabhu instructed His consort Srimati Jahnava Ma to accept disciples and to “pass on” the seed of BHAKTI.
Of course there is no doubt that these personalities have the purest BHAKTI in their hearts. So Srimati Jahnava Ma is our “original Gurudevi”, of course non-different from Sriman Nityananda Prabhu, Who ordered her, therefore Nityananda parivar.
When the devotee finds his or her Gurudeva and the devotee matures more and more and his/her inner bhajan becomes more and more intense and the heart purer and purer, then the “ability” to “pass on” this pure BHAKTI awakens in him/her and so he/she too can give this loving energy to his/her students/disciples.
brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru krsna prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija
“By the causeless mercy of guru and Krsna, the devotee can receive the seed of bhakti.”
This means PLANTING the seed and it takes place at the moment of initiation.
divyaṁ jñānaṁ hy atra mantre bhagavat-svarūpa-jñānam,
tena bhagavatā sambandha-viśeṣa-jñānañ ca
– Bhakti-sandarbha, Anuccheda 283
Divya-jñāna is transcendental knowledge contained within a mantra which reveals the form and identity of the Supreme Lord (bhagavat-svarūpa) as well as knowledge of the sādhaka-jīva’s particular relationship with the Lord.
dīkṣā-kāle bhakta kare ātma-samarpaṇa
sei-kāle kṛṣṇa tāre kare ātma-sama
sei deha kare tāra cid-ānanda maya
aprākṛta-dehe tāṅra caraṇa bhajaya
– CC Antya 4.192-3
“At the time of initiation, when a sādhaka fully surrenders to Śrī Guru, Kṛṣṇa makes him like Himself. He transforms the devotee’s body into a spiritual one; the sādhaka then worships the Lord in that spiritualized body.”
Here we see that at the time of initiation (diksha), the spiritual drop of consciousness, the atma, will start to transform “into a spiritual body”.
How is this happening?
We can find nowhere that actually the spiritual body, the siddha-deha, is ALREADY as a seed in the heart of the spiritual soul.
If not even BHAKTI is there, how can “a seed, containing the eternal form with all its qualities” already reside there?
The devotee will be given a spiritual body by Krishna, a body “like Krishna Himself”, meaning made purely out of cit-sakti, His inner energy.
In the tenth section of the Priti-sandarbha, Jiva Gosvami writes:
“In the spiritual world, the Supreme Lord has unlimited spiritual forms, all are expansions of himself illuminating that world. With each one of those forms, the Lord enjoys pastimes with a single individual liberated soul.”
These liberated souls therefore have spiritual bodies like that of the Lord. In the Lord’s abode, there are an unlimited number of forms, all suitable for rendering service to him. Every one of those forms is non-different from him, being expanded from his effulgence; each one is eternal, full of consciousness and bliss. They are the crowning, central jewels of the spiritual world—its very life.
These unlimited spiritual bodies are the perfected forms of the liberated souls which are awarded to an individual, according to his taste, when he reaches the state of absolute liberation. This state is called attainment of the spiritual body. All these spiritual bodies are eternal for they exist even before the liberated souls enter them and will continue to exist ever afterward. However, prior to the entry of the liberated soul they are in an inactive state.
As all of the unlimited souls are servants of the Lord, each one of them has a spiritual body in the Lord’s abode just suitable for rendering service to the Lord. When an individual becomes qualified for direct service to the Lord by the grace of the Goddess of Devotion, then the Supreme Lord awards him that spiritual body.
(from “Manjari Svarupa Nirupana” by 108 Sri Srimat Kunja Bihari das Babaji)
So, we as little spiritual drops of consciousness, can receive such a spiritual body according to our inner mood (BHAVA) which we cultivate in our BHAKTI under the guidance of our Gurudeva (ANUGATYA).
This eternal body is ALREADY THERE in Krishna´s world.
It can never be as a seed in our soul, ready to grow into a full-blown form.
Actually spiritual bodies “don´t grow”. They only “seem to grow” in the manifested lilas of Krishna. But an eternal body actually never “grows” like a tree from a seed into the final stage.
What really GROWS is our LOVE, our inner BHAVA.
All spiritual bodies are made of BHAVA (spiritual emotions). Srimati Radharani´s body is made of MAHa-BHAVA, the purest spiritual emotion.
When we mature in our BHAKTI we will receive information about a suitable spiritual body (siddha-deha) from our beloved Gurudeva who himself receives that information from Krishna. It is NOT imagination.
seva sadhaka-rupena siddha-rupena catra hi
tad-bhava lipsuna karya vraja-lokanusaratah
– Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu 1.2.295
“One should serve both in his present sadhaka-form and in his siddha-form, following in the wake of the residents of Vraja, desiring to have feelings similar to theirs.”
Or as Sri Jiva Goswami has explained:
kecid ashtadasakshara-dhyanam go-dohana-samaya-vamsi-vadya-samakrishta-tattat-sarvamayatvena bhavayanti
yatha caike tadrisam upasanam sakshad vrajajana-viseshayaiva mahyam sri-guru-caranair mad-abhishta-visesha-siddhy-artham upadishtam bhavayami
– Bhakti-sandarbha 312
“Some, while remembering the eighteen-syllable mantra, meditate on the pastimes of tending cows and playing flute, becoming attracted and absorbed in them. In such upasana (worship), in order to attain my specifically desired perfection, I should meditate on that very form of a resident of Vraja my revered guru has instructed me in.”
So when the devotee cleanses his/her heart by practicing BHAKTI, he/she can “realize” his/her Krishna-given and by Gurudeva-revealed form. That means at a certain time, the drop of spiritual consciousness has perfectly (siddha means PERFECTED)
IDENTIFIED itself with that wonderful spiritual form.
All bodily IDENTIFICATION will have vanished. The devotee who then has fully and perfectly realized his (given) eternal spiritual form will leave this mortal form behind. But what happens then?
“The devotee who realized his/her eternal form, let us say a form of a manjari of Radharani (the highest goal of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas), will be “born” from the womb of a cowherd-woman (gopi) by the arrangement of Krishna´s “special potency” Yogamaya, at the time when Krishna´s eternal associates apear in the manifested lilas in Sri Vrindavana in one of the universes. There won´t be even the slightest delay in this, because Sri Krishna´s manifest lilas are constantly revolving within the innumerable material universes, just like a firebrand, without interruption.”
– (Raga-vartma-chandrika, commentary by 108 Sri Srimat Pandit Ananta das Babaji)
There EVERYONE seems to grow, even Baby Krishna to Youthhood Krishna, all arranged by Yogamaya under the sweetest will of Krishna.
But the soul can not grow in the heart of the living entity. It can not grow from a seed to the final substance.
Therefore the concept of an unbroken diksha-parampara, one Gurudeva after the other, is very much important.
So planting the seed is an activity, not a process.
Srila Gurudeva plants the seed of BHAKTI in our heart, so that the drop of spiritual consciousness will be able to IDENTIFY and finally REALIZE its eternal, Krishna-given form, which is already THERE, in the spiritual world.
This is the final goal.
Everything happens only by the mercy of our beloved Gurudeva (Guru kripa) and by our greed to reach that most wonderful goal.
yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasado
yasyaprasadan na gatih kuto ‘pi
dhyayan stuvams tasya yashas trisandhyam
vande guroh sri-charanaravindam
– Sri Gurvastakam
By the mercy of the spiritual master one receives the benediction of Krsna. Without the grace of the spiritual master, one cannot make any advancement. Therefore, I should always remember and praise the spiritual master. At least three times a day I should offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master.
tvaṁ gopikā vṛṣa-raves tanayāntike ‘si
sevādhikāriṇi guro nija-pāda-padme
dāsyaṁ pradāya kuru māṁ vraja-kānane śrīrādhāṅghri-
sevana-rase sukhinīṁ sukhābdhau
– Stava Kalpadruma, Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī
“O Gurudeva! You are the beloved gopīkā of Śrīmatī Rādhikā and can bestow Her service. Bestowing upon me the shelter of your lotus feet, kindly make me blissfully engaged within the ocean of the blissfull mellows of service to Her lotus feet in the kuñjas of Vraja.”
Jay Sri Radhe.
– compiled by Tarun Govinda das
Amrita-Tarangini 