# Consciousness *On consciousness - the symptom of the soul that pervades the body and connects us to God* --- ### Consciousness Is the Symptom of the Soul > Consciousness is eternal. Consciousness is eternal, and consciousness is the symptom of the soul. Soul is eternal. When the soul takes shelter in the matter, then the matter develops, not that that combination of matter, you can produce soul. That is not possible. If that would have been possible, then there are many great scientists and many scientific laboratories, especially in your Western countries, in Europe and America, but nobody could produce a single living being in the laboratory, scientific laboratory. That is not possible. — [[spoken/1966/660328bg.ny|Bhagavad-gītā 2.46-47, New York, 1966]] --- ### Consciousness Spread All Over the Body > So what is spread all over the body? Consciousness. That is spread all over the body. Everyone can understand that if I pinch any part of my body or your any part of the body, you feel pain. Or similarly, if you get some other facilities, pleasure, so pains and pleasure are felt so long there is consciousness. Any man can understand. And as soon as the consciousness is not there—sometimes we are made unconsciousness by drugs, by chloroform and other anaesthetic medicine, or by nature—unconscious stage. — [[spoken/1973/730823bg.lon|Bhagavad-gītā 2.17, London, 1973]] --- ### Consciousness Cannot Be Produced > So the soul, the presence of soul, is perceived by the consciousness. Just like the presence of sun: even I was blind, I could understand the sun is there because the sunlight and heat, I am experiencing, without seeing the sun. As soon as I come to the sunshine, I feel light and heat, therefore immediately I can understand there is sun. It is not very difficult. Similarly, the touch sensation is there so long the soul is there. Now I am living body. If somebody pinches my body, because the consciousness is all over the body, so I feel, "Somebody's pinching me." But when the consciousness is not there, if somebody chops up my body I will not protest. — [[spoken/1972/721122bg.hyd|Bhagavad-gītā 2.17, Hyderabad, 1972]] --- ### My Consciousness and Your Consciousness > I am conscious, but my consciousness is not spread all over your body. You are conscious. Your consciousness is not spread all over my body. Therefore you are individual soul; I am individual soul. But there is another soul, Supersoul. That is Kṛṣṇa. That Supersoul is present both in you and in me. In every living entity. In every living entity. So the difference between individual soul and Supersoul is that individual consciousness is spread all over one's body, and the Supersoul's consciousness is spread everywhere. — [[spoken/1973/730823bg.lon|Bhagavad-gītā 2.17, London, 1973]] --- ### Consciousness Never Dies > In the Bhagavad-gītā the consciousness is stated: avināśī. Avināśī means it cannot die; it is always living. Avināśī tu tad viddhi. You just try to understand that thing which is always living. What is that? Yena sarvam idaṁ tatam—by which your whole body is spread. And anywhere of your body, that consciousness is spread. And that substance, consciousness, is always living. When you leave this body this consciousness goes to another body. — [[spoken/1969/690507le.bos|Harvard University Lecture, Boston, 1969]] --- ### Consciousness Carries You > Just like the air passes, the flavor the air carries, from one garden to another place, similarly, this consciousness will carry you to another body after your death. After you leave this body... Just like we are changing our consciousness also from childhood consciousness to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood, and the old age. The consciousness is carrying me although the body is changing. Similarly, when you change this body, the consciousness will carry you to another body. That consciousness is always living. It is never dead. — [[spoken/1969/690507le.bos|Harvard University Lecture, Boston, 1969]] --- ### The Position of Consciousness Is Activity > Simply theoretically knowing that "I am consciousness" will not do, simply theoretical knowledge, because the position of consciousness is activity. Activity. Now, my body is active. I am speaking to you; you are hearing to me. Congregationally we chanted saṅkīrtana just now. Why? Because the consciousness is present. If there was no consciousness either in you or I, then I could not chant, neither you could hear, or neither you could chant, neither I could hear. So therefore the position of the consciousness is activity. — [[spoken/1966/660328bg.ny|Bhagavad-gītā 2.46-47, New York, 1966]] --- ### Supreme Consciousness > God is also conscious; I am also conscious. So this consciousness, my consciousness is limited within my body. My consciousness is not spread over your body, and your consciousness is not spread over my body. But God's consciousness is spread everywhere. That is the distinction between God and me. Both of us are conscious, but His consciousness is unlimited, and my consciousness is limited. He knows past, present, future, what is going on in everyone's heart. These are the distinction. You cannot say, "I am God. God is dead." — [[spoken/1973/730823bg.lon|Bhagavad-gītā 2.17, London, 1973]] --- ### Awakening Consciousness > Now, in this consciousness we are thinking, "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am this," "I am that." "I am cat," "I am dog"—so many consciousness. This consciousness has to be purified. When your consciousness is purified, you'll understand, ahaṁ brahmāsmi: "I am not this body; I am spirit soul." This is the first step of self-realization. And as soon as you come to that platform of self-realization, the symptom will be that you'll be joyful. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā. — [[spoken/1969/690507le.bos|Harvard University Lecture, Boston, 1969]] --- ### What Is Consciousness? > Consciousness is very difficult to understand? Now you are talking, and when you don't talk, you lie down. People will say this man has become unconscious. So this is the distinction. When you are in full knowledge of things, that is consciousness. It is not difficult to understand. Sometimes teachers say to the student, "Do it conscientiously, with attention." When our full attention is there, full absorption, full concentration of the mind, that is consciousness. — [[spoken/1969/690507le.bos|Harvard University Lecture, Boston, 1969]] --- *10 quotes from Śrīla Prabhupāda on the nature of consciousness* [[wiki/quotes|Back to Quotes]]