what is material existence?

Internet world is very huge and everyday new people coming to internet world for various purposes. Everything can be changed except one reality that is “Religious truth”. You may know that many religious websites or giant like Wikipedia from where people learning about on anything, But these websites can not provide the real truth about on any religions. The reason is that they never count the originality nor going to check the article from the person who submitted. I kindly request you to read the Vedas only from an authorized source. I came across that many people going for Wikipedia website to know about religions. No matter what religion might be. But to understand the real truth you need to approach a bona-fide guru who is following disciplic succession. You may get thousands of answers from these websites. But 99 % of them are unauthorized. Everyone can write an article about on any religion and upload it. All this wants for this websites are bunch of words to earn money from advertising revenue. As I mentioned do not approach those sites if you want to know about religion. Just follow an authorized religious websites if you truly want to attain the platform of spirituality.

In this chapter we are going to learn about what is material existence? What are they, how they are defined? Also some of the prominent answers about sin clubbed into this chapter as well. Now we start with this chapter- what is material existence?

The living entity in two states namely ‘the liberated state and the state of material bondage’. Those living entities who are pure devotees of Bhagavan and who have never been bound by illusion, or who were liberated from the material existence by the mercy of God(Krishna), are known as mukta-jivas-liberated souls. The liberated state of existence is known as mukta-dasa. The baddha-jivas (materially bounded) on the other hand, are those who are oblivious to Lord Krishna and have fallen in to the clutches of Maya-illusion since time without beginning. Their conditioned state of existence is known as samsara-baddha-dasa. The jivas (living entity) who are liberated from illusion are cinmaya-fully spiritual, and their very life is service of lord Krishna. They do not reside in this material world, but in one of the pure spiritual worlds such as Golaka, Vaikunda, or Vrndavana. There are innumerable jivas who are liberated from Maya-illusion.

The living entities are bound by illusion are also innumerable. Due to their defect of alienation from God. God’s shadow potency, known as chaya-sakti or Maya sakti (illusion), binds the living entities with in the three –stranded ropes consisting of the three qualities of material nature, namely sattava-guna-Goodness, rajo-guna-passion and tamo-guna-ignorance. The conditioned soul appears in a variety of states of existence, according to the influence of the various gradations of these modes. Just consider the varieties in the jivas body’s, moods, appearance, nature, living conditions and movements.

When the jivas enters material existence, he takes on a new type of egoism. In the pure state of existence, the living entity has the egoism of being a servant of Lord Krishna, but in the conditioned state, many different types of egoism arise, making the living entity, think, “I am a human being,” I am a Demi-god, I am an animal, I am a king, I am a brahmana, I am a outcaste, I am diseased, I am hungry, I am dishonored, I am charitable, I am a husband, I am a wife, I am a father, I am a son, I am an enemy, I am a friend, I am a scholar, I am handsome, I am wealthy, I am poor, I am happy, I am sad, I am strong and I am weak” and so on.

Beside this ahamta, another function known as mamata (possessiveness or the sense of my-ness) enters the nature of the jivas. This exemplified in attitudes such as; “This is my house, These are my children, This is my wife, This is my husband, This is my mother, This is my father, This is my caste, This is my race, This is my strength, This is my beauty, This is my beauty, This is my quality, This is my leering, This is my renunciation, This is my knowledge, This is my wisdom, This is my work, This is my property, and This is my dependants and servants. The colossal affair that brings the conceptions of ‘I’ and ‘Mine’ into play in known as samsara (material existence)

Now the question will be raised that the conception of ‘I’ and ‘Mine’ are active in the conditioned state, but do they also exist in the liberated state?
We’ll see this in detail in Material existence part two