Don't Give Up Anything. Use All for Krishna.

On 18 August 1976 Srila Prabhupada gave a wonderful, powerful address for the opening of the ISKCON temple here in Hyderabad. He explained that surrendering to Krishna does not mean that one has to give up everything. He revealed that it means instead to engage everything in Krishna's service. Prabhupada gave the example of Arjuna, who was a military man. When Arjuna surrendered to Krishna he did not stop being a military man. Rather he engaged his fighting talent in the service of the Lord. So the same principle applies to us. Whatever talents or abilities we have can be engaged in the Lord's service. Just like in my own case, previously I was a musician, and now I am happily singing in kirtan for Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada in Hyderabad, India

Srila Prabhupada in Hyderabad, India

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version

Question: One Whole Spirit or Separate Beings?

Hare Krishna Gurudeva,

I have a question that one of my friends stumped me on. Are we individual souls? We are all part of God, so does that make us one whole spirit or separate beings?

R.G.

Answer: Both at the Same Time

Krishna confirms in the Bhagavad-gita that we are all individual souls for all of eternity. At the same time we are all part of God, just like all citizens of the USA are one because they are all Americans but at the same are different because they are all individual persons. This is the sublime philosophy known as “simultaneiously, inconceivably one and different” taught by Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So the proper understanding is that there is one whole spirit and simultaneously an unlimited number of separate individual beings, out of which the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the chief and everything else is subordinate to Him. The chief is called the Supersoul and the others are called the individual souls.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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