Category:Matter and Spirit
Theme Analysis
The fundamental distinction between the conscious living entity (spirit) and the inert body (matter) is the beginning of all knowledge. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the material world and the human form are combinations of these two energies. Real education involves discriminating between them—realizing that the self is the dynamic observer while the body is the changing covering. However, complete knowledge goes beyond this duality to the source: the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Both matter and spirit emanate from Him, and as the supreme controller, He can transform one into the other. For the Lord and His pure devotee, everything is spiritual because it is seen in relation to its source.
- The Distinction: A living man is spirit and matter combined; a dead man is matter without spirit. Discriminating between the two is the basis of sāṅkhya-yoga.
- The Source: Both energies come from the Supreme Brahman. Therefore, ultimately, there is oneness, but in the material state, the distinction is crucial for liberation.
- The Controller: Kṛṣṇa is the controller of both energies. For Him, there is no difference; He can turn matter into spirit (as in the arcā-vigraha form).
- The Goal: The purpose of distinguishing matter from spirit is not just theoretical analysis but to transfer one's attachment from the temporary material body to the eternal spiritual Lord.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: Knowledge Means to Know Matter, Spirit and the Controller of Both.
Subcategories
This category has the following 3 subcategories, out of 3 total.
Pages in category "Matter and Spirit"
The following 126 pages are in this category, out of 126 total.
1
A
- A living man means spirit and matter combined. And a dead man means the matter is there; spirit is gone. So you can distinguish what is spirit and what is matter. So similarly, there is, as this is material world, there is another spiritual world
- A person should see things as the combination of matter and spirit
- A person who is actually learned and sane does not claim to be God but tries to understand God, making distinctions between spirit and matter
- According to the Vedic injunctions, aitadatmyam idam sarvam, sarvam khalv idam brahma: everything is the Supreme Brahman. Therefore, both the body and the soul are Brahman, since matter and spirit emanate from Brahman
- Although one may understand that spirit soul and matter are different, their actual separation is not possible, either by philosophical speculation or by proper understanding
- Although spirit and matter ultimately come from the same one source, they cannot be made one. For example, there are many things that come from our bodies, but although they come from the same source, they cannot be made one
- Another kind of pasandi is one who does not believe in the spirit soul, the superior potency of the Lord, and therefore does not distinguish between spirit and matter
- Any advanced soul who has realized himself by the yogic process, who knows the relationship between matter and spirit, can leave the gross dress of the soul in perfect order & as he desires
- Any advanced soul who has realized himself by the yogic process, who knows the relationship between matter and spirit, can leave the gross dress of the soul in perfect order and as he desires
- Arca-vigraha form may be seen as material by the imperfect eyes of foolish people or kanistha-adhikaris, but such people do not know that the Lord, being omnipotent and omniscient, can transform matter into spirit and spirit into matter, as He desires
- Arjuna argued that religious principles should be given more importance than politics or sociology, but he did not know that knowledge of matter, soul and the Supreme is even more important than religious formularies. BG 1972 purports
- As it will be explained in later chapters, it will be clear that knowledge means to know matter and spirit and the controller of both. BG 1972 purports
- As the doll is all matter, so God is all spirit. But the man is half spirit and half matter
B
- Because human life is a combination of matter and spirit soul, the whole process of Vedic knowledge is directed at liberating the spirit soul from the contamination of matter. The knowledge concerning this is called atma-tattva
- Because Mayavadis have understood what is the difference between spirit and matter, it does not mean that knowledge is perfect. They are thinking, "Now we have understood what is spirit and what... Therefore we are liberated"
- Bhagavata-dharma is in the transcendental platform. It is not material. There are two kinds of dharmas: material and spiritual, because we are combination of matter and spirit at the present moment
- Bhakti is realizing that one is pure spirit and not matter at all. Our real identity is not this body, which is simply a covering of the spirit, but our real identity is dasa, servant of Krsna
- Both the material and spiritual energies - matter and spirit - exist eternally as potencies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The potent entity is the Supreme Person
- By analyzing all the different energies of Krsna, one can acertain that for Krsna there is no distinction between matter and spirit, or, in other words, He is both matter and spirit. BG 1972 purports
- By proper knowledge received from the scriptures in disciplic succession and by proper application of that knowledge, one can free himself from this binding combination of matter and spirit
E
- Even within this material world you cannot minimize the longest distance of time and space. But spiritually it is possible. That is the difference between matter and spirit. Just try to understand this
- Everything - includes living entities and inert matter. Both matter and the living entities come from Krsna. Indeed, the whole world is a combination of matter and spirit, prakrti and the living entity
- Everything that exists is a product of matter and spirit. Spirit is the basic field of creation, and matter is created by spirit. BG 1972 purports
F
- False ego I have already explained. It is neither matter nor spirit, but the junction - where the spirit soul comes into contact with matter and forgets himself
- For example, whether we speak of gold earrings, gold bangles or gold necklaces, ultimately they are all gold. In a similar way, all the different manifestations of matter and spirit are ultimately one in the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- For Krsna, everything is spiritual. Krsna has no material body. It is for us to distinguish between matter and spirit
- For Krsna, everything is spiritual. Krsna has no material body. It is for us to distinguish between matter and spirit. But Krsna, being the original source of everything, He is absolutely spirit. That's all. The Supreme Spirit
- For them (the demoniac) there is no difference between spirit and matter, and they do not accept the Supreme Spirit. Everything is matter only, and the whole cosmos is supposed to be a mass of ignorance. BG 1972 purports
I
- I am combination of spirit and matter. As soon as I am spirit, I am away from this matter, this body becomes matter. "Dust thou art; dust thou beist." Yes. So those who are mahatma, they have to take shelter of the spiritual energy
- I therefore offer my obeisances unto You, who are the greatest of all transcendentalists, and I inquire from You as to the relationship between man and woman and between spirit and matter
- If one accepts a spiritual master, he can learn to distinguish between matter and spirit, and that becomes the steppingstone for further spiritual realization. BG 1972 purports
- If one accepts a spiritual master, one can learn to distinguish between matter and spirit, and that becomes the steppingstone for further spiritual realization
- If the soul is there, the gross matter, this material body, it grows, the mind acts, the intelligence acts, the ego acts, and as soon as the soul is out of this body, it does not act. It decomposes and again turns into gross matter. That's all
- If the whole creation is one - that is, nothing but the Supreme Lord, or Visnu - then why do the expert transcendentalists make such categories? Why do learned and expert scholars distinguish between matter and spirit
- If we are on the platform of knowledge, then there is no distinction between matter and spirit
- Impersonalists do not take to devotional service, but take to other practices, such as the analytical study of the material elements, the discrimination between matter and spirit, and the mystic yoga system
- In human society there must be a proper balance between spirit and matter. We are actually spirit soul, but somehow or other we have been encaged within material bodies
- In modern education there is no knowledge about the spirit; they are simply taking care of the material elements and bodily needs. Therefore academic knowledge is not complete. BG 1972 purports
- In other words, He (Rsabhadeva) completely understood that matter and spirit are separate, and He had no bodily conception. Thus, without being angry at anyone, He walked through the whole world alone
- In so many ways he (the spirit soul) is influenced by false identification caused by false egotism, and being covered by illusory material desires, he distinguishes between matter and spirit
- In the advanced stage of Krsna consciousness, one does not therefore make such distinctions (between matter and spirit). He sees Krsna only in everything. BG 1972 purports
- In the Visnu Purana it is stated that Visnu and His abodes all have self-illuminated spiritual existence. The words existent and nonexistent refer only to spirit and matter. That is the version of all seers of truth. BG 1972 purports
- It is definite that matter and spirit are two different identities, and this conclusion is arrived at by the use of intelligence
J
- Jnana, knowledge, means distinguishing between spirit and matter. And this knowledge should be cultivated and taken full advantage in this life. That is succesful life
- Jnanis can discriminate between matter and spirit, but the yogis, the best of whom are the bhakti-yogis, want to return home, back to Godhead
- Just like I am speaking before you. As soon as I, the spirit, leave this body, this body can no more speak, can no more can shake the hands and move the hands and so on. Everything stopped. So just try to understand, this is matter and spirit
- Just like this, "God, give us our daily bread." It is mixed spiritual. One has approached God, God is spiritual, but one is asking for material profit. So this is mixture, matter and spirit
M
- Man is externally matter but internally spirit. And God is all spirit, both internally and externally. As the doll is all matter, so God is all spirit. But the man is half spirit and half matter
- Matter and spirit are all nondifferent from the Supreme Brahman, Bhagavan
- Matter and spirit are diametrically opposed. When we are inspired by devotional service to the Lord, our original identity begins to manifest in us and ultimately brings us to God-realization
- Matter originally is spirit and when spirit is not distinctly understood, that is matter
- Mundane news is static whereas transcendental news is dynamic, inasmuch as the spirit is dynamic and matter is static
- My (Kapiladeva's) dear respectful mother (Devahuti), I have already described the path of understanding the Absolute Truth, by which one can come to understand the real truth of matter and spirit and their relationship
O
- O Arjuna, I give heat, and I withhold and send forth the rain. I am immortality, and I am also death personified. Both spirit and matter are in Me
- O King, in all circumstances, whether you consider the soul to be an eternal principle, or the material body to be perishable, or everything to exist in the impersonal Absolute Truth, or everything to be an inexplicable combination of matter and spirit
- On account of accepting this material body, there is always miserable condition. Therefore everyone requires the psychiatric treatment so that the mind may be transferred from matter to spirit soul. Then he will be cured. The disease is of the mind
- One must have full faith in the words of the spiritual master and similar faith in the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then the real knowledge of atma and Paramatma and the distinction between matter and spirit will be automatically revealed
- One must understand that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is factually the original source of both matter and spirit
- One who is able to distinguish between matter and spirit, who is never disturbed by material transformations, and who meditates on the unlimited, inexhaustible, auspicious Brahman effulgence is a first-class, learned brahmacari and is named Caitanya
- One's seeing power should be increased through knowledge of spirit and matter, and one should not unnecessarily identify himself with the body and thus become attracted by bodily relationships
- Only for us, who cannot experience anything beyond matter in our present conditioned state, do the dhamas and the Lord Himself, in His arca form, appear before us resembling matter to give us the facility to see spirit with material eyes
- Others (who do not believe in the eternity of life) are less concerned with physical laws but do not believe anything beyond their experience. And still others equate spirit and matter and declare the distinction between them to be illusory
- Our propaganda is simply meant to enable intelligent people to understand the distinction between matter and spirit and understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the whole spiritual identity. That is our mission
S
- Sankhya-yoga, or the analytical study of the nature of spirit and matter, is the subject matter for persons who are inclined to speculate and understand things by experimental knowledge and philosophy. BG 1972 purports
- Sarvam khalv idam brahma. Matter and spirit are all nondifferent from the Supreme Brahman, Bhagavan
- Since Krsna is both matter and spirit, the gigantic universal form comprising all material manifestations is also Krsna, and His pastimes in Vrndavana as two-handed Syamasundara, playing on a flute, are those of the SP of Godhead. BG 1972 purports
- So far our constitutional position is, we learn from Bhagavad-gita that this distinction is there, that I am the soul and my body is the matter
- Some of the vibhinnamsa forms (of the Supreme Personality of Godhead) are spiritual, and some are a combination of matter and spirit
- Sometimes scientists argue that matter and spirit are one, with no difference between them. Factually, in a higher sense, there is no difference between matter and spirit
- Spirit and matter cannot be made one, for actually they are superior and inferior energies, yet the Mayavadis, or Advaita-vadis, try to make them one. This is wrong
- Spirit and matter, which combine together to manifest this gigantic universal form, are originally two energies of the Lord, and consequently the Lord is the original cause of everything. BG 1972 purports
- Spiritual knowledge vanquishes the knot of the heart. Matter and spirit are knotted by false ego
- Srimad-Bhagavatam gives us the chance to change the quality of anxiety from matter to spirit. This is done in the association of a learned philosopher like the self-realized Sukadeva Gosvami, the great son of Sri Vyasadeva
- Sva-dharmam. This is material division. The spiritual is different. So far... I am combination of matter and spirit; so far my body is concerned, there is division. But when I come to Krsna consciousness, it is not like that
T
- The body is changing every moment by the actions and reactions of the different cells. But the spirit soul exists permanently, remaining the same despite all changes of the body and the mind. That is the difference between matter and spirit. BG 1972 pur
- The cats and dogs, they cannot understand what is the distinction between spirit and soul, er, spirit and matter, but a human being can understand that, This is spiritual side; this is material side. The spiritual side is important
- The difference between matter and spirit is that matter has no consciousness like the living entity; therefore this consciousness is supreme and eternal. Consciousness cannot be produced by a combination of matter. BG 1972 purports
- The distinction between matter and spirit is created by the sleeping energy of the Lord when the Lord wants to give some facility to those living entities who want to imitate the Lord in His enjoyment
- The entire cosmic manifestation is but a combination of matter and spirit. The spiritual part is the living entity, and these living entities are described as prakrti, or energy
- The highest perfection of human life, achieved either by complete knowledge of matter & spirit, by acquirement of mystic powers, or by perfect discharge of one's occupational duty, is to remember the Personality of Godhead at the end of life
- The highest perfection of human life, achieved either by complete knowledge of matter and spirit, by practice of mystic powers, or by perfect discharge of occupational duty, is to remember the Personality of Godhead at the end of life
- The knot of doubtfulness is tied when the soul identifies with the material world. That knot is also called ahankara, the junction of matter and spirit
- The Lord is all spirit, and matter is ignorance of this spiritual existence
- The mahat-tattva is the via medium between pure spirit and material existence. It is the junction of matter and spirit wherefrom the false ego of the living entity is generated
- The material world is a shadow phantasmagoria of the spiritual kingdom of the Lord, and because it is a shadow it is never eternal; the variegatedness in the material world of duality (spirit and matter) cannot be compared to that of the spiritual world
- The matter and spirit, we are all combined together, every one of us, because I am the spirit soul; I am not this body, matter. So both the matter and spirit are here, you can see
- The Mayavadis, say, cid-acit-samanvayah: spirit and matter are one. This is a wrong conception. Spirit (cit) is different from matter (acit)
- The perfection of service attitude is only attained simply by transferring the desire of service from matter to spirit, or from Satan to God
- The Personality of Godhead, the original source of all energies, is able to convert spirit into matter and matter into spirit. For Him there is no difference between matter and spirit. He is therefore called kaivalya
- The PG can turn matter into spirit and spirit into matter by His inconceivable power. Everything is therefore matter and spirit by the grace of the Almighty, although there is a difference between matter and spirit for the ordinary living being
- The purpose of performing religion is neither to profit by material gain nor to get the simple knowledge of discerning matter from spirit
- The soul is spirit, and the body is matter. But when you attain a body like Krsna's, that means that is spiritual body. There is no difference between the soul and the body
- The spirit soul is not produced from matter; it takes on a particular type of body under superior arrangement. According to our present experience, this material world is a combination of matter and spirit. The spirit is moving the matter
- The spiritual concept of life, as it is described before: vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvam (SB 1.2.11). Tattvam means truth. The truth is spirit, not this matter. Matter is truth, subordinate to spirit
- The spiritual quality of the seer is manifest in our dissatisfaction with the limited state of materially conditioned existence. That is the difference between spirit and matter
- The Supreme Lord is the supreme living entity. Therefore whatever exists, whether matter or spirit, is all but an emanation from the Supreme Person, or supreme life
- The Supreme Personality of Godhead thus explained to King Satyavrata the spiritual science known as sankhya-yoga, the science by which one distinguishes between matter and spirit
- The swan (hamsa) is one who discriminates between matter and spirit, who accepts the essence of everything, and who explains the means of bondage and the means of liberation
- The theory that matter is the cause of the entire cosmic manifestation cannot be accepted by any man with sufficient knowledge of matter and spirit
- The two energies manifest (spirit and dull matter), beings possessing living force (vegetables, grass, trees and plants) are superior to dull matter (stone, earth, etc.). Superior to nonmoving plants and vegetables are worms and snakes, which can move
- The wise man is he who can discriminate between matter and spirit, between God's superior and inferior natures. Such knowledge is Krsna Himself. BG 1972 purports
- There is spiritual division also, because we are combination of matter and spirit. I am the soul. I am living within this material body. This is actual position
- These boys and girls have understood what is austerity and the difference between spirit and matter, that is the highest knowledge of existence. Because they are engaged in serving Krsna in this way, you have nothing further to worry
- This cosmic manifestation is a mixture of matter and spirit, but the cause is the Supreme Brahman, the Supreme Personality of Godhead
- This is matter and spirit. Where there is consciousness, that is spirit. Where there is no consciousness, that is matter
- This material world is a combination of matter and spirit, but the spiritual world, which is far, far away from the material sky, is purely spiritual and has no contact with matter
- This material world is only a shadow phantasmagoria of the spiritual kingdom of God, and because it is a shadow it is never eternal; the variegatedness in the material world of duality (spirit and matter) cannot be compared to that of the spiritual world
- This material world is the world of duality, in contrast with the oneness of the absolute realm. The world of duality is composed of matter and spirit, whereas the absolute world is complete spirit without any tinge of the material qualities
- This statement, which lists the ingredients of a material body, is not a perverted mellow in transcendental realization because it shows correct discrimination between matter and spirit
- Those who are foolish, mudha, they are interested in this temporary life, and they do not know what is there after death, neither they have got any knowledge what is spirit, what is matter. Ignorance. In darkness
- Those who do not follow in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His disciplic succession cannot distinguish between matter and spirit, and therefore all their ideas are but a mixed-up hodgepodge of problems
U
- Under the spell of illusion, a person accepts the gross and subtle bodies as his self; such a conception is the basis of the doctrine of transference from spirit to matter
- Unless one has been trained in geology, one cannot detect gold in stone. Similarly, unless one has been trained by a spiritual master, he cannot understand what is spirit and what is matter
- Unless one is able to see everything as spiritual in relation with the Supreme Lord, one must always distinguish between spirit and matter
W
- We have no experience of the spiritual world. But we can get an glimpse idea, what is spirit and what is matter. Just try to understand the difference between a living man and a dead body
- We should be very much careful not to become their (duskrtina's) victim. So although the atheists say there is no God, jagad ahur anisvaram, but we are convinced that God is the origin - janmady asya yatah - of both matter and spirit
- When a person abandons the path of devotional service and simply labors for knowledge, he has no profit other than the trouble he takes to understand the difference between matter and spirit. It is useless labor to try to get grains from empty husks
- When one is devoid of distinctions, there is no longer a difference between matter and spirit. At that time, the spirit is the only predominating factor. As long as one is covered by material desires, he thinks himself the master or the enjoyer
- When one understands all of these twenty-six subjects (the twenty-four elements, the individual soul, and Lord Visnu as Paramatma), he becomes adhyatma-vit, an expert in understanding the distinction between matter and spirit