THE PART IS SAT(ETERNAL)
by purujit dasa
Let’s discuss more about the nature of the varieties. When we speak of parts of the Complete Whole, they, just as the Complete Whole Itself, are completely distinguished from parts of a material
thing here. if you divide a cake into parts, the cake is gone, neither the parts have any further connection with the cake. in the absolute conception however, the parts and the whole although
they are divided always remain in oneness. they can never be separated from one another, because the complete whole is all that is. another important information is that the parts were never
created. if they were created, then the Complete Whole would be incomplete in the sense of missing the created parts at the time before they were created. Srila Prabhupada comments on this point
here:
The Māyāvādī philosophers wrongly think that Kṛṣṇa loses His own separate existence in His many expansions. This thought is material in nature. We have experience in the material world that a
thing, when fragmentally distributed, loses its own original identity. But the Māyāvādī philosophers fail to understand that Absolute means that one plus one is equal to one, and that one minus
one is also equal to one. This is the case in the absolute world.
Bg 4.35 purport
So simply based on this, you can understand that both the whole and the parts are eternal and undividable. the parts are therefore qualitatively equal with the Complete Whole.
nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān
"He is the supreme eternally conscious person who maintains all other living entities."
Kaṭha Upaniṣad (2.2.13)
The fragmental portion of the Supreme Lord is not like some material broken part. We have already understood in the Second Chapter that the spirit cannot be cut into pieces. This fragment is not
materially conceived. It is not like matter which can be cut into pieces and joined together again. That conception is not applicable here because the Sanskrit word sanātana (eternal) is used.
The fragmental portion is eternal. It is also stated in the beginning of the Second Chapter that (dehino 'smin yathā) in each and every individual body, the fragmental portion of the Supreme Lord
is present. That fragmental portion, when liberated from the bodily entanglement, revives its original spiritual body in the spiritual sky in a spiritual planet and enjoys association with the
Supreme Lord. It is, however, understood here that the living entity, being the fragmental part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, is qualitatively one, just as the parts and parcels of gold are
also gold.
Bg 15.7 purport
(to be continued...)
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