Srila Prabhupada's Lecture - FOLKNet

"The whole cosmology, material world, is just sustained by My partial manifestation ofenergies." Ekamsena. This material cosmology, material manifestation, is one fourthdemonstration of God's energy. The three-fourths manifestation of His energy is thespiritual world. Paras tasmat tu bhavo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktat sanatanah [Bg. 8.20]. Thereis another nature which is spiritual nature, para, superior. The spiritual nature isdescribed as para. Para means beyond this apara. There are two energies working,material nature and spiritual nature. Material nature, it is described in the Bhagavadgita:bhumir apo 'nalo vayuh kham mano buddhir eva bhinna me prakrtir asöadha [Bg.7.4]. These eight types of material nature—earth, water, fire, air, sky, mind,intelligence and ego—these are material nature. Bhinna prakrtir asöadha. They areseparated energies. Apareyam itas tu viddhi me prakrtim param. Beyond this. Theseare inferior, apara. And beyond this apara-prakrti, there is another, superior prakrti.What is that? Jiva-bhutam maha-baho yayedam dharyate jagat [Bg. 7.5]. That is theliving entity.So living entity, living being, is energy of the Supreme Lord. Energy. Just like the sunand the sunshine. Sunshine is the energy of the sun globe. Similarly, we living entities,we are also energies of the Supreme Lord. What is this sunshine? It is a combination ofa very small shining particles, molecular. That is sunshine. It looks like onehomogeneous thing, but they are small particles. That is scientific understanding.Similarly, we are also a small particle of the Supreme Lord. Mamaivamso jiva-bhutah[Bg. 15.7]. We are a small particle. How much small? What is the magnitude? That isalso described in the sastra. Kesagra-sata-bhagasya satadha kalpitasya ca, jiva-bhago savijneyah sa anantyaya kalpate [Cc. Madhya 19.140]. There is dimension of the livingentity—one ten-thousandth part of the tip of the hair. So it is very difficult with our,these material eyes. We are very much proud of our eyes. But here is the indicationfrom the sastra, the length and breadth of the living soul. Now, you find out, with youreyes, your microscope. That is not possible. Because they cannot find out, they say,nirakara. Nirakara. In one sense, it can be supported that we cannot ascertain theforms of the soul. And what, how we can ascertain the form of the Lord? Anor aniyanmahato mahiyan.So spiritual education means, spiritual enlightenment means, first of all, we must try tounderstand the jiva. Because jiva is the small particle of the Lord. So that we canunderstand the quality of the Lord. Just like if you test a small particle of gold, then youcan understand the composition of gold. If you test a little drop of water from theocean, you can analyze the chemical composition of the sea. Similarly, if you cananalyze the characteristics of the living entity, then you can at least understand what isGod, what is the characteristics of God. Therefore the beginning of spiritual educationis to understand one's self, this self-realization. How to realize self? We have to takeknowledge from others. Knowledge means..., to acquire knowledge, to learn from the3 www.folknet.in