In the Bhagawat Purana Lord Krishna says that the soul is forever evident, already achieved. We do not need to achieve it. Then what needs to be done, and how ?
—Vivek Sharma, India
Dear Vivek,
The soul is always perfect. No perfection needs to be achieved at all. What needs to be done is to realize what the soul is, meaning who we truly are. Right now you are suffering at times, correct? This is because you haven’t yet realized your ever-perfect soul, which is forever blissful. Once you realize — or remember — your soul, suffering will be gone forever.
Spiritual practices, especially meditation, only serve to take away delusion (the delusion that we are a mortal body, a limited being which can suffer), realizing ourselves as the soul. The soul, the Bhagavad Gita says, can’t drown in water, can’t burn in fire, can’t be harmed by a sword. It is without death, without birth.
This, however, needs to become not only a teaching we read in the scriptures, but a true personal realization, through meditation. It is called Self-Realization, or soul-realization.
May Krishna bless you with deep inner remembrance and realization.
In divine friendship,
Jayadev
