How do souls get different bodies right at the beginning?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.
Okay, in the beginning all souls are pure on what basis are they given different bodies? How do they get the bodies for the first time? The scriptures describe that the material existence of soul is Anadi. Prakriti and Purusha both are Anadi and Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakur in Bandelitya Bhoshan, both of them are prominent Acharyas in Narasimhada and they explained that the contact of Prakriti and Purusha, Prakriti is matter, Purusha is consciousness or soul, their contact is also Anadi. So, that which is beginningless is by definition its beginning cannot be traced, beginningless does not necessarily mean that it never had a beginning, beginneless simply means that its beginning cannot be traced, that is why what happened at the beginning is something which is not comprehensible to us.
We talk about humility in various domains of knowledge, humility with respect to the time domain, humility means to accept humility in the intellectual realm, it means to accept that there are certain things which we don't know and there are certain things which we can't know. So, getting into the beginnings of things, that is something which we will not be able to perceive because the time scales are so huge and the starting point is untraceable, that's why the scriptures do not get into this. Acharyas explained that our bondage is Anadi, is beginningless and that is where they leave it at and as far as the point of the universe or the soul getting different bodies at different times, what we need to focus on is more of the solution than the analysis in the form of post mortem.
When a person has got malaria and he has to ask, please take this treatment, you will get cured. No, I want to find which mosquito bit me and I want to ask that mosquito why it bit me, why not someone else. Well, how will you find a mosquito? It's just a waste of time.
So, that's why when we go into the question of origins, it's often a discussion which has no conclusive understanding. And in any field of knowledge that we go, there are things which are considered unknowable. For example, if we consider quantum physics today, quantum physics is a branch of knowledge which has in many ways revolutionized technology.
The kind of processing that we can do through quantum physics is remarkable. But when we try to correlate quantum physics, the model of the universe that it gives with our day to day experience, according to quantum physics, actually all that exists is simply waves. And when there is an observer, the waves coagulate into substance.
The waves collapse and then we have something which is observed. So, Neil Bohr was a prominent propagator of the quantum theory and he and Einstein were great friends at one time. But then Einstein couldn't digest the idea of quantum physics.
He said that I would like to believe that the moon continues to exist even if I am not looking at it. So, the moon is up there in the sky. I can see it.
When I don't see it, it is there. But actually according to quantum physics, there is no such thing as a moon. It's only when I look at it, there is a waveform that is there and that waveform collapses into the object called moon.
So, the moon exists according to quantum physics. According to quantum physics, as interpreted in a particular way that is prominent at the time of Einstein, that the moon exists only when there is an observer to see the moon. Otherwise, there is no moon.
So, everything is simply waves. That is the idea. But we, in our day to day reality, I can touch it.
This is a solid object. I can make a sound. This is solid.
One solid touching another solid. Paul Dirac was a physicist and he was asked this question by one of his students. He said that how do we make sense of this quantum physics? How can we reconcile the idea of everything as waves with all the objects I see over here? So, his guide answered him, stop thinking, start calculating.
He says, you can't think. Quantum physics, the model of physics is just not conceivable. Just start calculating.
Do the calculations and it works. So, the point is in every branch of knowledge, we will come to certain things, certain limits which are not possible. And obsessing over those questions which are not answerable, that simply wastes our energy and distracts our focus.
So, the questions about origins are usually like that. That is why there is no need to go too much into a postmodern on these questions.