Part One

There are three spiritual modes of internal energy called sandhini-sakti, samvit-sakti, and hladhini-sakti. Over the next few weeks each of these component parts will be presented, beginning with this paper on sandhini-sakti.

Eternality, or sat, is conducted by the sandhini potency, and is the impersonal Brahman (brahmajyoti) feature of Godhead. Being limitless, it extends in all directions-three-fourths in Vaikuntha, and one-fourth as the resting place of this cosmic manifestation, or mrtyu-loka (the place of death). Juxtaposed to the sat feature, Mrtyu-loka is known as asat, or nonexistent, being impermanent.

The manifested cosmic creation, called triloka is arranged in three spheres known as Svarga-loka, Martya-loka and Patala-loka; the upper, middle and lower planetary systems respectively. When the eternal living being wishes to satisfy his senses, he is supplied with a body comprised of five material elements within the prison house of triloka, and is forced into a life of bondage, shackled by sex life.

No one within this realm can experience the sat feature of the Lord while remaining in material consciousness. When the living entity desires to turn from a life of temporal existence to a life of permanence in Vaikuntha-dhama, he must undergo a transformation. When qualified, he receives a suitable non-material body by the sandhini potency in which to engage in devotional service.

In the eternal realm of Vaikuntha, not even a trace of the asat nature can be found. Unlike sattva-guna, the adulterated mode of material goodness, Vaikuntha-dhama exists eternally in a state of visuddha-sattva or vasudeva-sattva, the transcendental mode of pure goodness. The Lord along with His pure devotees, household paraphernalia, etc., are situated eternally in that existence.

Srila Prabhupada: “…this sandhini-sakti of the internal potency maintains and manifests all the varigatedness of the spiritual world. In the kingdom of God, the Lord’s servants and maidservants, His consorts, His father and mother and everything else are all transformations of the spiritual existence of sandhini-sakti. The existential sandhini-sakti in the external potency similarly expands all the varigatedness of the material cosmos, from which we can have a glimpse of the spiritual field.”

Bhava dasa (ACBSP)
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