(excerpt from Religion of the Heart by Śrīla Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj)
Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu said it is natural that the jīva-souls want to go to their own abode, because that abode is transcendental and the jīva-souls are also transcendental.
When a particular sādhu came from India to the West some years ago, he was honored as a representative of Indian religion, although he wasn’t actually a representative of the religion of the Vedas. When he gave a lecture at the University of Chicago, all religious leaders of the world were present. He began his lecture with these words, “My brothers and sisters in America!” Everyone was charmed when they heard this. Everyone was thinking, “We are brothers and sisters of this Indian sādhu.” By his humble and inviting mood he showed the real mood of the Vedic religion. We are all brothers and sisters because we have all come from that same big glow and we all have the same qualities in our heart.
Naturally all the jīva-souls want to go to their own abode but because they are covered by the illusory environment they cannot see that glow, and because of their small ability to be attracted, that glow cannot attract them.
Mahāprabhu gave the example of a mirror. He said chetodarpaṇa-mārjjanam. When a mirror is covered by dust we cannot see ourselves. If we clean the dust, we can see ourselves. He said it is necessary to clean the dust from the jīva-soul’s own form, then all the jīva-souls will get their own natural religion back. They will be attracted, naturally, by their own abode. I am describing this glow, this effulgence of the Lord’s abode as a transcendental glow, but actually it has an infinite form.
The Taittirīya Upaniṣad {3.1} says:
yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante yena
jātāni jīvanti yat prayanty abhisaṁ-viśanti
tad brahma tad vijijñāsasva
“All the jīva-souls and all the universes have come from that abode. That glow is maintaining all the jīva-souls as well as all of the universes and it is the place where they will go at the end of creation. It exists as part of the complete spiritual body of the Lord.”
It is said in our Scriptures, the Vedas: śṛṇvantu viśve amṛtasya putrāḥ, “O sons of nectar, sons of the nectarean ocean-sea, you are born of nectar, and you are born to taste nectar. Why are you suffering with birth and death and many other unwanted things? You have your own abode. Please come back to that abode.”
asato mā sad gamaḥ, tamasa mā jyotir gamaḥ,
mṛtor ma amṛta gamaḥ
{Bṛhadaraṇyaka Upaniṣad}
“From the mortal, go to the eternal. From ignorance, from darkness, go to knowledge. Go to light. From unhappiness, go to happiness.” All Scriptures give us this advice: “Don’t go to the illusory environment. Go to reality.”
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