B.Gita As It Is
Svami Prabhupada
As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies,
giving up the old and useless ones.Purport: Change of body by the atomic individual soul is an accepted fact. Even the modern scientists who
do not believe in the existence of the soul, but at the same time cannot explain the source of
energy from the heart, have to accept continuous changes of body which appear from childhood to boyhood and
from boyhood to youth and again from youth to old age. From old age, the change is transferred to another
body.
Transference of the atomic individual soul to another body is made possible by the grace of the Supersoul.
The Supersoul fulfills the desire of the atomic soul as one friend fulfills the desire of another.
The Vedas, like the Mundaka Upanisad, as well as the Svetasvarata Upanisad, compare the soul and Supersoul
to two friendly birds sitting on the same tree. One of the birds (the individual atomic soul) is eating
the fruit of the tree, and the other bird (Krisna) is simply watching His friend. Of these two birds-
although they are the same in quality- one is captivated by the fruits of the material tree, while the
other is simply witnessing the activities of His friend. Krsna is the witnessing bird, and Arjuna is the
eating bird. Althought they are friends, one is still the master and the other is the servant.
Forgetfulness of this relationship by the atomic soul is the cause of one's changing his position from
one tree to another, or from one body to another. The jiva soul is struggling very hard on the tree
of the material body, but as soon as he agrees to accept the other bird as the supreme spiritual master-
as Arjuna agreed to do by voluntary surrender unto Krsna for instruction - the subordinate bird
immediately becomes free from all lamentations. Both the Mundaka Upanisad and Svetasvatara Upanishad confirm this:
sumane vrkse puruso nimagno 'nisaya socati muhyamanah justam yada pasyaty anyam isam asya mahimanam
iti vita-sokah"Although the two birds are in the same tree, the eating bird is fully engrossed with anxiety and
moroseness as the enjoyer of the fruits of the tree. But if in some way or other he turns his face
to his friend the Lord and knows His glories - at once the suffering bird becomes free from
all anxieties."
I was inspired to share this from Bhagavad Gita As It Is after I saw the blog by Benloka
I seem to be getting a lot of subtle messages/signals/signs recently, coupled with frequent synchonicity. Not quite sure what to make of it, but heres another thing happened. We'd gone away mainly for a bit of reading/study time, so I was reading Srimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad Gita earlier that day for about 4 hours. In both books, I kept coming across the same example. Its a commonly used example about the soul and God being like two birds sitting in the same tree. One bird is captivated by the fruits on the tree, frantically chasing after more, the other is merely witnessing. The tree represents the material body, and life after life, the soul and God travel from one body to another. The soul is so anxious about trying to enjoy the material world through the medium of the body, but if he simply turns toward God, who is sitting right next to him, then that anxiety and struggle immediately vanishes. Anyway, I was reading this example, again and again. Eventually, after reading it the umpteenth time, I put my book down on the bedside table. Got up and looked at the small picture hanging above the bed. I'd not seen it when I first came in, but when I saw I couldn't believe my eyes....