Bhagavatam-daily 203 – 11.11.08 – Embodied existence is not a dream – bodily misidentification is

Thank you. Srimad Bhagavatam 11.11.8 देहस्थो पिनदेहस्थो विद्वान् स्वप्नाव्यतो धितः अदेहस्थो पिदेहस्थः कुमदेः स्वप्नद्रव्यतः This verse makes an example of how Bhagavatam is also a beautiful poetry.
देहस्थो पिनदेहस्थो देहस्थो and its opposite अदेहस्थः these words are used four times and a form of meaning is conveyed over here देहस्थो पिदेहस्थो so although being situated in the body the self-realized soul sees that I am not in the body that is विद्वान्, विद्वान् that also self-realized over here सप्नाव्यतो धितः this is a person having woken up from a dream understand that the dream was not real whatever I was experiencing in the dream is not actually happening to me I was not being devoured by a tiger I was not being thrown down from a mountain whatever अदेहस्थो पिदेहस्थो and although not being situated in the body one thinks that one is situated in the body कुमतिः स्वप्नद्रव्यता because of less intelligence, because of misdirected consciousness स्वप्नद्रव्यता just as a person in a dream while dreaming considers the dream to be real and is horrified, terrified, petrified by the dream whatever is happening in the dream the dream is terrible, it’s like a nightmare now this verse is something similar to Bhagavad Gita where it says that कर्मणिय कर्मयः पशेल कर्मणिचे कर्मयः there also the word कर्म is opposite of कर्म come four times similarly देहस्थो अनदेहस्थो देहस्थो अनदेहस्थो देहस्थो four times it comes so let’s try to understand what is being situated over here first half देहस्थो पिन देहस्थो and although being situated in the body the Vidhwan sees that I am not situated in the body so there is the physical situation and then there is the material situation and then there is the spiritual perception so as a matter of fact from the point of view of embodied existence even the liberated soul is situated in the body in that sense we are all actually situated situated in our body the soul is entangled and now even if somebody is liberated unlike those who are entangled even that person still is in the body irrespective of the higher spiritual perception that has been awakened from the point of view of interacting in this world that person has to interact with the body so देहस्थो in that sense the person is in the body but पिन देहस्थो but one does not think that I am in the body in the sense that the person’s consciousness the person’s desire, the person’s aspirations are not caught in the body are not restricted to the body are not limited to the body so विद्वान, this is a person has awoken up from a dream it’s interesting that what exactly is being considered to compared to a dream over here it is not just embodied existence but it is bodily misidentification during embodied existence so that means embodied existence is not a dream bodily misidentification is so we are never the body we are in the body and the wise person sees this now paradoxically this person is more like not just watching a dream while sleeping it is like after waking up now thinking about the dream and recollecting the experiences within the dream so although one may see the same horrifying experiences like tiger chasing and closing in and catching our leg in its sharp fangs you may see all that but still you know that none of that is true that is not happening to me but significantly the self-realized soul has one more capacity although at one level one understands I am not the body none of this is happening to me but when we wake up from a dream we cannot change anything in the dream the dream is just a thought in the mind but self-realized soul can act even at the bodily level self-realized souls don’t act in bodily consciousness but they do act in this world for furthering the mission of compassion for furthering lord’s desire to elevate conditioned souls Dehastha means that although the liberated soul is still in embodied existence in the sense that the liberated soul has got Jeevan Mukti Jeevan is living and is freed from attachments to the body Videha Mukti means the body itself has been given up that has not happened so the liberated soul is having embodied existence but the desires are not limited by that so in that sense Nadehastha but on the other hand Adehastha Pidehastha Adehastha means from the soul’s point of view is the soul situated in the body if you consider from the point of view of eternity from the point of view of spiritual truth soul and body are different and Krishna gives examples two examples of how ether does not mix with how ether pervades everything and still doesn’t mix with everything underlies everything and still doesn’t mix with it and similarly the sun illumines the earth but the sun is not in the earth this example is in Bhagavad Gita so in that sense the soul is always transcendentally situated so the soul remains transcendental beyond time, beyond modes transcendental so Adehastha is in terms of the transcendental nature of the soul Adehastha Pidehastha Adehastha Pidehastha so although the soul is transcendental here Dehastha refers to the soul’s consciousness is caught in the body and because of this consciousness being caught in the body soul is entangled so we have to understand what the four words mean in these four contexts all of them have different meanings first Dehastha refers to the fact of embodied existence second Dehastha means the bodily bondage so for the liberated soul although there is embodied existence there is no bodily bondage and the second Dehastha Adehastha Pidehastha it means despite the soul being transcendental the soul gets materially entangled because of delusion, because of the desire to enjoy just as a person who is lying comfortably in a bed imagines that I am in a forest being chased by a tiger because of the dream so the point of all this this may be enjoyable play of words or it may be complex analysis of concept the point of it all is to not take material existence too seriously the point is to recognize that this material existence is temporary and what seems devastating right now this will after sometime just be a distant memory and by recognizing that we don’t have to take these things too seriously we can stay focused seriously on the pursuit of transcendental reality on the pursuit of Krishna Krishna Chittagore explains that Krishna will talk about the difference between the liberated and the conditioned souls so we will continue discussing this in our future talks