Understanding the unborn’s understandings 3 – What is a human soul
[Bhagavatam class on 3.31.14 at ISKCON, Denver, USA]
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Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Yeah. So, I spoke Today, I spoke on this topic of what differentiates humans from animals.
And I talked about how the human soul is at Prabhupada’s. So, what is the soul is? And Christians have the idea that humans alone have souls. Or humans have a special kind of soul which can know God.
And atheistic scientists say that this human ego was destroyed by science. They say there is nothing special about humans. We are just machines.
We are just biological machines. But if that were true, that we are biological machines designed only for survival and reproduction, then, we don’t have the capacity to know deeper realities. Deep knowledge in any field requires going beyond appearances.
So, science postulates invisible principles to explain visible phenomena like gravity for falling fruits. And, if one is not willing to delay gratification, then one cannot get deep knowledge in any field. And, if we are biological machines, then how do we know that what we know is right? Because we are not designed to know what is right.
We are designed only to know what will help us survive and reproduce. Even that is not right ultimately. So, Darwinian evolution, if it is made into an absolute ideology, it becomes self-contradictory.
Because, if it is true, then it destroys our capacity to know what is true. And then, its own truth is questioned by that. So, then, we see that humans do have the capacity to delve into deeper truths.
I talked about the defining difference between humans and animals. Spoken in generic terms is that humans have the insight that the present can be traded for the future. And, this has been confirmed repeatedly even by scientists.
Talked about the resistors and indulgence experimented with marshmallow and how the resistors were able to do much better in their lives in the long run. And success in any field, athletics, sports, education, it requires the willingness to delay gratification. And that is also required in spiritual life.
But, what to delay one’s gratification and for how long? That scope is redefined in spirituality. So, while the principles for success in material and spiritual life are similar, the purposes are radically different. That, what is the destination for materialists is a distraction for spiritualists.
And what is the destination for spiritualists is a distraction for materialists. So, if we keep our vision focused on the ultimate destination, on Krishna, then, as the more we are able to delay gratification, the more we will be able to develop our spiritual connection with Krishna. And that will ultimately lead to elevation and liberation.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.