Beyond the Gross and Subtle Bodies

In the First Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, Third Chapter, verse 33 it is stated:

yatreme sad-asad-rūpe
pratiṣiddhe sva-saṁvidā
avidyayātmani kṛte
iti tad brahma-darśanam

"Whenever a person experiences, by self-realization, that both the gross and subtle bodies have nothing to do with the pure self, at that time he sees himself as well as the Lord."

So just see how important it is for the aspiring transcendentalist to be firmly convinced that he is not his gross body or his subtle body, which consists of the mind, intelligence, and false ego. This transcendental conviction gives him the all-important and essential access to realize his true self as an eternal spirit-soul servant of God and to realize the Supreme Self, as his eternal master, Lord Sri Krishna.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: Karma and Free Will

Please explain what is karma and what is free will. When we consider these words it seems that they are contradictory. But the shastras or scriptures speak of these two principles existing simultaneously .

Sandeep

Answer: Make Your Choice

Karma means that for every action there is a reaction. When you do something good, you are rewarded. And when you do something bad, you are punished. The law of karma acts upon those who are serving the Lord's illusory energy here in this material existence and binds one to cycle through an endless repetition of births and deaths in the material world. Those who opt to serve the Lord's spiritual energy are freed from the good and bad reactions of this material existence and enter into the Lord's transcendental abode at the time of death to live an eternal life, full of knowledge and full of bliss.

Free will means that you can decide whether you want to serve the Lord's spiritual energy to become free from karma's clutches and attain the spiritual world, or whether you want to serve the Lord's material energy and remain in karma's clutches in the endless cycle of birth, death, old age, and disease.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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