If athma has no gender, why male & female aren’t seen similarly?
A Girl devotee (Name hidden) asked like this:
“Hare Krsna anna… Pamho..AGTSP… Have one doubt anna…Is there types of soul? (I mean female soul and male soul)… if it is not, then why these female and male? Yes its for maintaining the population (as I knew this from yr posts). The base of sp. Study is staring from.. we are not this body, we are sp. Soul. But we decide this is male /female according to their body only. From the ancient to now… the saints and sages maintain many restrictions between male and female for some good purposes…these restrictions pointed to their body only not soul. Why? If all are souls, why these differentiation?..(yes… they are opp. Sex . hence we maintain some restrictions…). but still why?
REPLY:
Simple. Since we do every activity using this body, there are many restrictions for the body related acts.
If the body is not used in devotion, we take many births. If we use the body for Krishna, we go back to Krishna.
How?
Because we can use the body to make the soul as EITHER CONDITIONED OR LIBERATED by acting for our pleasure or Krishna’s pleasure.
(Do animals have soul or not and can they be killed since they have no soul? READ HERE!)
So, we have to go back to Krishna using this body only.
Body is a tool that helps us to avoid bodies in future births.
Athma has no gender differences. Male and female classification is based on bodies only, not for athma. As we are athma, we have no gender. No doubt in it.
Then, why the Lord gave this male-female classifications for body?
Let us analyze an example just for easy understanding:
You can’t see electricity. It is the driving force for all the instruments. If the electricity goes into the body of a fan, it rotates the wings and the air is produced. The fan is not the energy. It is just an instrument. Electricity is the energy.
(Can you explain whether we are body or soul or both? READ HERE!)
If the same electricity enters into the body of a bulb, the bulb produces light. Bulb is just a carrier. Not the energy. Electricity is the energy here also.
If the same electricity enters into a radio or audio player, the player produces sound. The player is not the energy. It is just a carrier of energy. Electricity is the energy.
So, the same electricity functions differently in different instruments to maintain various needs of the people. The classifications are for the instruments only. The Electricity is the same everywhere.
Right?
Another important aspect in these examples given by me is that a body (instrument) is required for the electricity to act. If there is no instruments (body), the electricity is FREE and UNCONDITIONAL and it can freely spread all over and we can not contain the electricity into a bottle without any chemicals or carriers.
(Can we meet the same relatives in next birth? Are they our soulmates? READ HERE!)
Same applies for athma. Athma is like electricity. It is free and not conditioned. But, when it is free, it has no visibility and functions. Only when it takes a body, it starts to operates that body. When it leaves the body, it becomes free and body becomes just a material. This does not mean that Athma has gender as males and females. Actually athma has no gender.
The Lord has created this material world just as an entertainment. He was alone in His milky ocean. He wanted to create some creations in which He will live as Paramathma in all the living beings and his energies in the forms of athma will act as a driving force for all living beings.
He also planned that any living being can have a “Free Will” to choose between these two:
(1) They can either involve in sense related activities using the given bodies and take different types of bodies again and again.
(Athma (Soul) and Paramathma (Supersoul)- Differences! READ HERE!)
(2) If they want, they can stop doing these sense related activities for his pleasure, but to satisfy Krishna and get liberated from material creations. If anyone likes to go back to the Lord Himself, they can stop all these sense related activities and worship the lord and hence get liberated and come back to the Lord Himself eternally.
This is the original arrangement of Krishna when He created all of us. To maintain this show, He gave two types of bodies. One to give seeds and another to give eggs and give birth to new bodies. So, He created male and female bodies that can interact with each other. If all are the same type of bodies, how can they CONNECT and give birth to the new bodies? So, He gave different types of bodies. Even after creating these two types of bodies, they should have some INTEREST to CONNECT with each other. If there is no attraction, how will they CONNECT? So, He created attraction between males and females through mayadevi. So, the attraction between males and females is the base of the population of this planet.
As said by me already, if anyone understands that these attractions are to give repeated births and deaths, he will start to think of going back to His original country, Goloka. So, the same body can be used either to have sense activities or to practice Krishna Consciousness and get liberated from all these repeated births and deaths and settle in Goloka eternally.
(Nature Of Athma (Soul): Can the athma (Soul) feel, see, speak and work? READ HERE!)
As all of us are fortunate, Srila prabhupada and Sri Caitanya Maha prabhu who gave us simple process to get liberated USING THIS BODY. So, we, the athma, are practicing K.C using this body and its senses. In other words, we are involving our senses in Krishna instead of material pleasures.
So, we are on the process of going back to the Lord now. We will one day reach Goloka if we are sincere in our devotion in this birth.
So, use this body to worship Krishna. Not for just reproduction. Even if you reproduce, give a devotee child for the lord. This is also a service for the lord. Thus, the people can use even sex in the service of lord by producing devotee children.
This is the secret of the arrangement of our life, Athma (ourselves) and our bodies.
Hope all of you are clear now about if athma has no gender, why male & female aren’t seen similarly.
(8 IMPORTANT QUESTIONS ON SOUL (ATHMA) ENTERING THE BODIES! READ HERE!)