Are pure souls covered by the subtle body?
Answer Podcast
Is the covering not there in self realized soul see here there are two things in which we use two senses in which we use the word say ahankara mana buddhi ahankara the word ahankara ego at one level it is used to refer to a particular element just like the earth water fire is there like that ahankara is there as one element so in that sense you could say ahankara is a thing it is an object but the word ahankara is also used for emotion you know this person has a lot of ahankara lot of arrogance so Krishna also uses the bhagavata in the bhagavata ahankara in both the senses as a thing he uses it in 7.4 when he relists the elements but then he also uses ahankara in the sense of a quality you know we build it by ego we think that I am the doer so now the ahankara as an object as a thing just like in a pure devotee’s body also there will be earth water fire air their body is also going to be made of physical elements similarly even when they become purified the ego as one of the elements of the body mind, intelligence, ego they are going to be present but the ego as a conception where the arrogance or the pride or the ego itself that will not be there that means the the ego as an element will exist as long as anybody has a material body because the ego is an element of the bodily composition but the ego as a conception which makes one think I alone am the doer I am this body I am so great that conception is burned up by purification so in that sense so yeah again when you see when you use the false ego and true ego in this context what is happening is there we are using the word ego in the sense of conception we are not using the word ego in the sense of object if it is an object like water there is no such thing as false water and true water, water is water so when we are saying false ego and true ego that means the conception is false so the ego, ego is what I am identifying with the body that is false if I am identifying myself as a soul or servant of Krishna that is true so that means you could say the ego as a false conception no longer exists but ego as a true conception so that true conception comes so subtle body will continue to exist but the delusion that is caused by the subtle body that will no longer be there it will not distort us so like say somebody has spectacles and the spectacles they color what they see but if you clean this, if there is a dust and it distorts what I am seeing but then I clean the dust the spectacles are still there but then the spectacles help me to see clearly they don’t distort my vision so like that the subtle body is what we need to perceive in this world but when the subtle body is purified then it doesn’t distort our perception.