Watch video at: https://www.radhakrishnaprem.com/p/q-and-a-with-swami-nikhilanand-jiA devotee is asking: Does sāyujya mukti mean losing one's individuality forever?The goal of meditation is to join our mind with Krishna. Now when you and I do that our mind is partly and temporarily joined with Krishna The more we practice the deeper that state of union becomes, but we're not perfectly attached to Krishna. We're not completely surrendered to Him. So, right now to whatever extent we're attached to Him, our mind receives His grace. Our mind, to the same percentage, gets purified and develops good qualities and reduces bad qualities and in the very same amount receives ābhās or reflection of Krishna's Divine blissfulness. Ultimately, when one fully surrenders to Sri Krishna, then they attain the perfect state of union with Him.That perfect state of union can be realized in one of two main ways:* One is when you receive a Divine body, senses and mind and you go to the Divine world, just like you see depicted on some of these beautiful panels here in the mandir, you go to His Divine abode with Him in Divine Vrindavan, Divine Golok. And over there in His Divine abode, because you have a body and He has a body, you can see each other, talk to each other. You can embrace. You can be with Krishna in any way you want, play games or serve Him. This is one way of realizing God.* Another way of realizing the state of perfect union is not to have a Divine body, senses or mind. In that case, just your soul merges into Krishna's formless aspect. So this is called ‘såyuja mukti’. In this state, you don't actually get to experience anything because your mind no longer exists. You didn't get a Divine mind and your material mind finished because it was material, mayic, and now the mayic influence and bondage over you is finished. Your body was also mayic. You left that behind when you went to merge into God. So no mind or senses or body, just your pure original Divine soul. Then how would you experience anything? The soul needs faculties with which to experience. The soul needs senses. Soul needs a mind and a body in order to realize its potential to experience. The soul itself is the one with the potential to know, hear, see, experience, but without those faculties (you’re not going to be able to do anything). Just like you have an engine of a car but that car engine isn't connected to an axle with wheels; and the car is revving up, it's alive. It has potential, it has power. But where are you going to go? Until you give that engine a drive shaft and the axle and some wheels, (where are you going to go)?Similarly the soul has the potential to do everything. The soul is full of life, Divine power, yet without a mind, senses and a body, ‘the rubber is not going to hit the road’. You're not going to be able to do anything, think anything, know anything, experience anything. Right now we have material faculties to experience this world. After God realization, we could get Divine faculties to experience God and the Divine world. But some people ask for pure, ‘only liberation’; it's called ‘kaivalya mukti’ or ‘sayujya mukti’. So in that case, you actually do lose your individuality, although you don't cease to exist. But let's say you are a drop of water and you enter the ocean. Did you cease to exist? No, the drop of water didn't cease to exist. That molecule of H2o is still there, but practically it lost its individuality when it merged into the ocean. Similarly, you as a soul will never cease to exist, but if you merge into formless God in that state of ‘kaivalya moksh’, for all practical purposes your individuality is finished. You merged just like a drop of water into the ocean never to do anything or experience anything ever again. Do you still exist? Yes, your soul still exists as an individual entity. But just like the drop of water that lost its practical identity when it merged into the ocean, you practically lose your identity when you merge into formless God.So these are the two main options in the Divine world. Luckily for us, we have a choice.A devotee is asking: I hear about curses when you read our scriptures, Ramayan, Mahabharat. We always hear about this Rishi giving this curse, this person getting that curse, even God gets cursed. So they want to know what is that about? Is a curse a bad thing? Why does it happen in our scriptural history?So, let's look at the actual meaning of the word shrāp, which means curse. Shrāp in Sanskrit comes from the word ‘shreya prad’. ‘Prad’ means denewala (giver). ‘Shreya’ means ‘sabse achha’. ‘Apne hit ki bāt (talks about our best interests). ‘Shreya’ means our ultimate good and ‘prad’ means that which gives. So ‘shreya prad’ or a curse, shrāp means that which leads to something good happening.Let me give you an example: One time Narada ji came to Shri Krishna with pride that you know, “I was sitting and doing ...
