When we suffer due to our past karma does the Supersoul feel pain because his part is suffering?
From Latha Mataji
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. Question from Lata Mataji.
When a person is suffering due to one’s past karma, does this lord in the heart also suffer because his part is undergoing pain? Answer. Yes and no. No in the sense that when people suffer reactions of the past karma, that is because of their bodily misidentification.
The soul is different from the body. To the extent the soul misidentifies with the body, to that extent the suffering is there. So, the lord is not misidentifying with the body.
So, in that sense, the lord does not suffer the same way as we suffer. But at the same time, the lord loves us and the lord knows that at our level, we are undergoing suffering. So, the lord wants to relieve us from the suffering and that’s why, in fact, he is present in the heart and that’s why he is trying to guide us towards spiritual enlightenment.
Just like, if a child is watching a horror movie and while watching the horror movie, the child gets terrified because there is some very ghastly creature doing some ghastly thing and the child starts crying and is trembling. So, what does the mother do at that time? The mother embraces the child, caresses the child and comforts the child. So, the mother is concerned about the child’s suffering.
But is the mother suffering the same way the child is suffering? No, because the mother is not watching the horror movie and is not identifying with the characters in the horror movie. Mother is at a different level of existence. The same way, the super-soul is present in the heart because the super-soul loves us, so it’s concerned for us.
But at the same time, the super-soul is not going through the same illusions that we are going through. So, the same kind of suffering is not there. But the principle of concern at our suffering is there.
And this very presence indicates a very strong desire to free us from that suffering by helping us come out of the illusion that is the basic principle or that is the basic cause of all our sufferings. So, in that sense, the super-soul is definitely concerned. The super-soul is not apathetic.
It is very sympathetic. The scriptures do say sometimes the super-soul is udasina. Udasina refers more to the fact that the super-soul is not partial.
The super-soul when somebody gets suffering, it’s not the super-soul is angry with that person who is suffering. It’s not the super-soul is pleased with giving that person the enjoyment. It is udasina in that sense.
The super-soul is not directly concerned with or is not responsible for somebody’s material pleasures and pain. The person’s material pleasures and pain are not because of the super-soul’s partiality. In that sense, he is udasina.
But his very presence indicates that he is concerned. And that’s why, as Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, sarvasya chaham rtisa nivishto. I say very close I stay in the heart of everyone.
mattah smitir jnanava pohanam jyo. That I give knowledge, remembrance and forgetfulness and I give the Vedas also so that people can come back to me ultimately. So, the super-soul is definitely concerned that his part is suffering and wants to do all that is possible so that the part of Krishna, all of us, can become free from suffering.
Thank you.