Let’s continue. We can go now to text number 17, chapter 2:
Text 17
“Know that which pervades the entire body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul.”
What pervades the entire body? Actually, it is consciousness. You can go to the most remote part of your body, the tip of your finger, the tip of your toe. Stick a pin there and you will experience, “Ow!” You’re conscious, “Ouch!” You pull a hair of your head or a mosquito bites you, “Ouch!” A worm from the garden just bit me on the neck – I knew it, immediately I knew it.
We are conscious. Consciousness pervades our entire body. And consciousness is a symptom of the soul. As we explained in our class in Sochi, we are tiny little spiritual sparks, we are spiritual energy, but we are eternally individualized sparks of this energy. And one of the symptoms of the soul is consciousness.
Spiritual energy is always conscious. Material energy is always unconscious. You can take any part of material energy – no pain here. Does it hurt? Do you hear me? Nothing goes on. If it’s electrified, then seems like it is alive. Is this microphone alive? No, it is not. Matter is dead, there is no consciousness. But everywhere there is spirit, there is consciousness. There is no such thing as unconscious spirit.
According to the body that the spirit is in, it is more or less covered, the consciousness is more or less covered. If you take a tree, there is a person inside that body, but the consciousness is very covered. So the tree does not respond very much. But the scientists in their research have discovered that trees are also conscious. They found that trees scream when you break off a branch. We do not hear them but the scientists with their instruments can see they experience pain. Or when you put them in the presence of nice sounds, beautiful music, they respond in a favorable way, they are happy, they like it. Very covered, but still consciousness is there because the soul is there. And, of course, when the soul reaches the human form, there is a lot of awareness. So the consciousness pervades the entire body but it is because of the soul’s presence.
“No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul.” According to Krishna, the soul cannot be destroyed. But the body is so easily destroyed. We are always protecting it, trying to keep it from being destroyed. Car accidents destroy the body, diseases destroy the body, poisons, weapons, many, many, many things destroy the body. The soul cannot be destroyed.
The Vedic literature is incredibly detailed. There is so much information that we do not get in other places, information the scientists will never discover, it is beyond the concept of our material senses.
One of those details describes the size of the soul. We talked that it is a little spiritual spark, but how little? How little is it? Very little. What does that mean? Does it mean this big or this big? (demonstrates with extending hands) No, the Vedas describe it quite differently. They say that if you take one hair from the head and divide that hair into 100 pieces… Very hard to do but… we must have a sharp knife. If somehow you do that, then you take one of those pieces and the other 99 you just throw away (you do not need them). Now you have got one piece and then you divide that into 100 pieces. More difficult, sharper knife required. And then you take one of those pieces and throw away the rest, (you do not need them). Now you have this one ten thousandth part of the hair. And then you turn it on its end and look at it. And the tip of that hair is the size of the soul.
So, you know, big guys walk around, “I am a big guy, look at me.” Yes, I see, you are very big. That is the size of the soul. We are not big. We are very, very small. But under illusion we think, “Oh, I am so big.”
There are innumerable souls. In this material world, all these tiny little souls are in all these different bodies. Just look around that scene: so much life in the form of trees, grass, insects. Go outside here, walk a little bit: pigs, cows, horses, etc., so much life; off the roads there are many bees. And they are all people, just like us. They are not pigs and horses, they are spirit soul, just like us. But they are in their bodies, we are in our bodies.
So life in the material world is the presence of these tiny little spiritual atoms, just smaller than the material atoms. But yet they do so much. Think of all the things that these tiny little sparks do. The elephant is so big and strong. In India they use them as tractors. Yes, they tear down trees, do many things. And yet the engine is that small tiny little spark – yet such big strength.