2016-11-26 Srimad Bhagavatam 10.87.31 - Principle of Unity in Diversity (download mp3) by Krishna Chaitanya Prabhu at ISKCON Chowpatty www.iskcondesiretree.com SB 10.87.31na ghatata udbhavah prakrti-purusayor ajayor ubhaya-yuja bhavanty asu-bhrto jala-budbuda-vattvayi ta ime tato vividha-nama-gunaih parame sarita ivarnave madhuni lilyur asesa-rasah Translation: Neither material nature nor the soul who tries to enjoy her are ever born, yet living bodies come into being when these two combine, just as bubbles form where water meets the air. And just as rivers merge into the ocean or the nectar from many different flowers blends into honey, so all these conditioned beings eventually merge back into You, the Supreme, along with their various names and qualities. Purport: Without proper spiritual guidance, one may misunderstand the Vedas’ description of the living entities emanating from the Lord to mean that they have come into being in this process and will eventually pass again into nonexistence. But if the living entities were to thus have only temporary existence, then when one of them would die his remaining karma would simply vanish without being used up, and when a soul would be born he would appear with unaccountable karma he had done nothing to earn. Furthermore, a living being’s liberation would amount to the total eradication of his identity and being. The truth is, however, that the soul’s essence is one with Brahman’s, just as the small portion of space contained within the walls of a clay pot is one in essence with the all-expanding sky. And like the making and breaking of a pot, the “birth” of an individual soul consists of his first becoming covered by a material body, and his “death,” or liberation, consists of the destruction of his gross and subtle bodies once and for all. Certainly such “birth” and “death” take place only by the mercy of the Supreme Lord. The combination of material nature and her controller that produces the numerous conditioned beings in material creation is likened here to the combination of water and air that produces countless bubbles of foam on the surface of the sea. Just as the efficient cause, air, impels the ingredient cause, water, to form itself into bubbles, so by His glance the Supreme Purusa inspires prakrti to transform herself into the array of material elements and the innumerable material forms manifest from those elements. Prakrti thus serves as the upadana-karana, or ingredient cause, of creation. In the ultimate issue, however, since she is also an expansion of the Supreme Lord, it is the Lord alone who is the ingredient cause as well as the efficient cause. This is as stated in the Taittiriya Upanisad (2.2.1), tasmad va etasmad atmana akasah sambhutah: “From this Supreme Soul the ether evolved,” and so ’kamayata bahu syam prajayeya: “He desired, ‘Let Me become many by expanding into progeny.’” The individual jiva souls are not created when “born” from the Supreme Lord and prakrti, nor are they destroyed when they “merge” back into the Lord, rejoining Him in the pleasure pastimes of His eternal kingdom. And in the same way as the infinitesimal jivas can appear to undergo birth and death without any factual change, the Supreme Lord can send forth and withdraw His emanations without Himself undergoing any transformation. Thus the Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad (4.5.14) affirms, avinasi vare ’yam atma: “This atma is indeed indestructible” — a statement that can be applied to both the Supreme Soul and the subordinate jiva soul. As explained by Srila Sridhara Svami, the dissolution of the living being’s material condition occurs in two ways, partial and complete. Partial dissolution occurs when the soul experiences dreamless sleep, when he leaves his body and when all souls reenter the body of Maha-Visnu at the time of universal annihilation. These different types of dissolution are like the mixing of nectar brought by bees from different kinds of flowers. The different flav