During their spiritual advancement, do devotees see the Supersoul in their heart? How?
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Question from Rahul Prabhu While reading Bhagavad Gita, I came across verse 13.25 and the translation is as follows Some perceive the Supersoul within themselves through meditation others through the cultivation of knowledge and still others through working without fruitive desires How can a devotee perceive the Supreme Soul which is present within his body? I can understand that a person can perceive the presence of the Soul through the presence of consciousness that is pervading within the body But I am curious to know how a devotee can perceive the Supreme Soul who is the friend of the individual spirit soul What are the symptoms of a person who has perceived the Supreme Soul within his body? Is he able to witness the four-handed form of Vishnu? The only example I came across is Dhruv Maharaj who witnessed the Supreme Soul And my question is can we witness the Supreme Soul like Dhruv Maharaj If we chant the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra Answer? Yes, definitely Even by chanting and by practicing Bhakti Yoga we can perceive the Supreme Soul In fact, the next verse talks about Bhakti 13.26 says 13.26 So it explains that The previous verse is talking about three categories of people 13.26 So like that it goes on Krishna talks about Jnana Yoga, Sankhya Yoga He talks about this in various places throughout the Gita as means for spiritual perception And here, after talking about these three pathways then Krishna actually recommends a fourth pathway that Anye, some other people Tvayv Majananta They do not know all these about these various processes Shudva Anyebhya Upasate That Shudva Anyebhya They hear from some other people, that means some other devotees Upasate, they start worshipping and then They will go beyond what? Nrtyum Go beyond Nrtyum How? By hearing So hearing is a central limb of the process of Bhakti So by hearing, they begin their practice and by hearing, they transcend death So Krishna is basically contrasting various paths In the previous verses, he has said how the soul becomes entangled In 13.23, he has said how the super soul is unentangled And then in 13.24, he gives a summary of what he has taught 13.25, now he starts the process of self-realization or higher realization and perception So in 13.25 and 13.26, he gives the means to perceive and 13.28 to 13.35, he gives a complete picture of what is perceived So starting from 13.28 to 13.35 So Krishna essentially is in this 13th chapter telling what is the ultimate reality and he describes how the Jnanis perceive it and then even in this chapter which is in the Jnana section of the Gita in the last 13-18 chapters of the Jnana section but there also Jnana leads to Bhakti and here also earlier once Krishna has talked about this in 13.20 when he says My bhaktas will be able to understand all this and here also he recommends hearing just by becoming Shruti Parayana So now Dhruva Maharaj was a devotee but he practiced Yoga Marga He was not practicing Yoga to attain yogic mystic perfections He was practicing Yoga as a means of practicing Bhakti So that is also a possibility that there are some Bhaktas who use Yoga Sadhana to pursue the Supreme Lord Dhyan Yoga which was earlier in the earlier ages one of the means of self-realization that was not the same as just Ashtang Yoga as a different yogic path It was the process of Yoga used to achieve the end of Bhakti Now by Bhakti primarily by hearing spiritual sound vibration our higher perception awakens So after the Anartha Nivrtti takes place in the 9 stages of Bhakti the Shraddha, Sadhu, Sangha, Bhajana, Kriya Anartha Nivrtti is the 4th stage then there is Nishtha, Ruchi, Bhava, Asakti and Prema So now after Anartha Nivrtti takes place the higher perception starts So how does the higher perception start? Actually the soul has its own eyes and the soul can perceive higher reality with those eyes So when the soul's consciousness rises currently the consciousness is in Jagruti then there is Swapna and then there is Shushupti When the soul goes beyond this to start going towards Samadhi which is also the ascent that happens to the yogic path Even the devotee attains the stage of Samadhi or Turiya and at this stage of Samadhi one starts perceiving spiritual reality So now does a devotee see the four-handed form of Vishnu? That depends on what the Ishta Dev of the devotee is So Krishna himself guarantees that the devotee gets his guidance from within the heart So Krishna says in 10.10 in the Bhagavad Gita that for those who serve him affectionately and consistently he gives them the intelligence by which they can come back to him and actually getting that intelligence to make right choices is far more important than just getting Darshan because we see that Dhruv Maharaj even after he got Darshan of the Lord later on when he was provoked by the Yakshas because they had killed his brother so he lost his temper and he became overwhelmed temporarily by anger but the sages gave guidance to him and told him to calm down and then he remembered Lord Vishnu he calmed down The point is that we shouldn't have an over-expectation or over-estimation of beholding the Lord For a devotee getting the guidance of the Lord hearing the voice of the Lord knowing from within with conviction that this is what Krishna wants me to do that is more important and that slowly starts happening the more we become purified and eventually certainly the devotee also sees the Supersoul in the heart and whether the Supersoul is seen as a Supersoul or a Supersoul is seen as Krishna that will vary depending on the Rasa of the devotee The Brahma Samhita says Premanjanaksharita Bhakti Vilocanena Santah Sadaiva Hrudayeshu Vilokashanti Yam Shamasundara Machint Gunaswaroopam Govindamadi Purusham Tamaham Bhajami So the Santas they see Shamasundara Now Brahmaji in this particular prayer is glorifying Govinda and he is talking about the glories of Krishna So those who are devoted to Krishna will see Shamasundara Those who are devoted to some other form will see some other form So the Paramatma is ultimately an expansion of Krishna and we have to be understand We have to understand Krishna says that all people are reciprocate In the Bhagavatam also Krishna says that to Brahma that Yad Yadhyatur Gaya Vibhavayanti Tattad Vapuh Pranayase Sadanugrahaya That Yad Yadhyatu by whatever inclination a person worships me then I manifest in that particular form Tattad Vapuh Pranayase I manifest in that form to show mercy to that particular devotee So devotees will by the process of hearing also awaken their spiritual perception because hearing Transcendental Sound Vibration purifies our consciousness and raises it from the current Jagruti level to the Samadhi level where spiritual perception becomes natural and there we will perceive not just the soul or the super soul but we will see the Supreme Lord in the form that is Ishta that is dear for us.