httpv://youtu.be/PQFit0dETNA
video: Dhwaja Avarohana — Brahmotsava 2013
Prabhupda, New York, March 25, 1966: […] So it is very common sense affair, that consciousness, that is the main thing in this body. So any intelligent man with common sense can understand this. Now, what is this consciousness?
This consciousness is the symptom of the soul. Just like wherever there is some fire, there is heat or there is smoke. When you see something… Suppose you are sitting here. If you find somewhere smoking, then you are afraid, “Oh, there must be some fire. Otherwise why smoke is coming?” Or wherever you feel some heat, although you do not see the fire directly, still, you can understand that there is fire.
Because there is smoke… Because there is heat, therefore there is fire. Similarly, this consciousness, nobody can deny this consciousness. Now, this consciousness, because this consciousness is, therefore I am, my, I mean to say, identification or my energy is being produced in the shape of consciousness. So this consciousness proves that I am the soul, present here. That is Gita’s philosophy, and that is the whole Vedic philosophy. Anyone, either the devotees…
Just like we belong to the devotee group of philosophers. Then there are others who are impersonalists. But they, or both of them, they do not deny the presence of the soul, presence of the soul. The Buddha philosophy, they do not recognize the soul. They, according to them, that the combination of matter at a certain stage produces consciousness.
But that philosophy, that argument, can be refuted that with matter, you cannot produce consciousness. Because… Take the example of a dead man. The dead man is there. All the elements, material elements, are all there present. But you cannot revise, you cannot revoke that man to consciousness. The elements are there, the ingredients are there.
Now, if you think this ingredient has been decomposed or deteriorated, then replace that ingredient. Just like in a machine. In a machine some part is wear and tear. It is not working, stopped. You can replace that part into new part, and the machine will work. But this is not like that. If you think that something has deteriorated in this body, therefore it has become dead.
Say, for example, that they say generally, due to heart failure. Now, heart… Medical practitioners they know it that heart is always pumping like this, pumping like this. Now, can you produce heart action by artificial pumping? No. It is not possible. They give respiratory oxygen gas and so many things, but it cannot be revived.
Therefore it is a fact that the soul, soul is different from this body. So long the soul is there, the body acts. And we, with our blunt senses, our gross senses, we cannot see the soul. Therefore we deny it. Because our imperfect senses cannot see this. We cannot see so many things. So many things.
Just like we are seeing this place is vacant, the outer space, but there are instruments. If you see with those instruments, you will find they are full of germs. Full of germs. Take a drop of water, as clear as possible. But if you see with microscope, you will see, “Oh, it is full of germs.” So imperfect vision of existence, of the existence of the soul, does not mean that there is no soul.
The soul is there. Soul is there, and we can feel the presence of the soul by the symptom of consciousness. Consciousness. And that’s a clear fact.
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