Souls have in them a huge potential even while they are intrinsically small. This is the beauty of the cosmic design, says AJIT KUMAR BISHNOI
Lord Krishna describes us, souls, as His parts in the Geeta. (15.7) And we always remain so, that is, unchanged small souls. There is no mention anywhere in our scriptures that we, souls, ever become different or bigger. We eternally remain unchanged. (2.23-24)
The smallness of the soul is indicative of its very limited powers. All a soul can do is to desire, decide and enjoy or suffer as a consequence. Everything else is done by the material nature (3.27); our bodies are also parts of the material nature. If it wasn’t so, no one will ever become sick or die for that matter; we will tell our bodies to follow our dictate. We can try to keep our bodies fit but the control over our bodies is not with us. We in fact are quite helpless not only with regard to the state of our bodies but in many other matters as well. Aren’t we controlled by the results of our past deeds, which manifest periodically as good luck or bad luck? Our being small is part of the cosmic design. Imagine some soul becoming powerful somehow intrinsically. What chaos he or she is likely to cause; he or she may even challenge God. Therefore, this possibility does not exist.
However, this does not mean that we, souls, are helpless in the ultimate sense, because that will make the cosmic design defective. God is prepared to empower us in many ways. Souls have huge potential even while they are intrinsically small. This is the beauty of the cosmic design. God has mercifully empowered me to write spiritual texts; He provides the needed information to me. (15.15) Therefore, a wise soul does the logical thing, that is to take shelter of God, who is open to such surrender. Rather, He encourages us to do so. (18.62) Then, our deficiency of being small disappears. Small souls are able to perform unbelievable feats. Imagine Tulsidas writing such voluminous spiritual texts like Ram Charit Manas!
How do we get started on this all important surrender to God? In this also God helps; He communicates His instructions. As soon as a soul takes a material body, it is automatically covered by the three modes of the material nature, which are goodness, passion and darkness. This can be understood by an example of a man covered by a cloth made up of three different types of materials. The material representing goodness is light and mostly transparent; the material representing passion is slightly thicker and opaque; and darkness is almost dark. God has no problem piercing this cover; He is everywhere to begin with. The difficulty lies on the soul’s ability to communicate to his brain. This cover stands in the way.
What should we do to get over this difficulty? The composition of the cover around us has to be made more transparent with greater goodness, less passion and very little darkness. How this can be done is covered in the fourteenth chapter of the Geeta. There is another way, which Lord uses for those sincere souls, who are very keen on hearing from God; He finds many ways like a medium or He gives us a dream with the right information. Similarly, wise souls do spiritual activities while they are changing the relative proportions of the three modes. This endears us to God, who, then, takes the direct route of communication. By the way, God has no difficulty in receiving our messages; nothing can come in His way.
So let us get started on taking full benefit of this facility of getting help from the omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent God, if not started already. I have managed to get started on getting God’s guidance, help, various shaktis (strengths), protection, bliss, peace, support and forgiveness. We all can do so and will, then, never be handicapped by our inherent smallness.”
Bishnoi is a spiritual writer and can be reached at spiritual@ajitbishnoi.com
