Types of Souls: Vishnu Tattva, Shiva Tattva, Jiva Tattva and Shakti Tattva

There are four basic types of living entities, or souls - Vishnu-tattva, Shakti-tattva, Shiva-tattva, and Jiva-tattva. Vishu-tattva is God and all His expansions, like Balaram, Rama, Narsimhadeva, Varaha, Kurma etc. Shakti-tattva is Radharani and all Her expansions - Goddesses like Laxmi, Parvati, Sarasvati, Durgadevi etc. Radharani is the hladini-shakti of God, His energy of bliss, and all goddesses are expansions of that energy. Jiva-tattva is the individual souls like you and me and all other living entities - plants, insects, animals, humans, including demigods like Brahma, Indra, Surya, Chandra, Vayu etc.

Shiva is in a category entirely of his own. He is greater than demigods (jivas), but not quite God. Krishnadas Kaviraja Goswami says: He whom Srimad-Bhagavatam describes as the son of Nanda Maharaja has descended to earth as Lord Chaitanya. —C.C., Adi 2.10 Srila Prabhupada explains: According to the rules of rhetorical arrangement for efficient composition in literature, a subject should be mentioned before its predicate. The Vedic literature frequently mentions Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan, and therefore these three terms are widely known as the subjects of transcendental understanding.

But it is not widely known that what is approached as the impersonal Brahman is the effulgence of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's transcendental body. Nor is it widely known that the Supersoul, or Paramatma, is only a partial representation of Lord Chaitanya, who is identical with Bhagavan Himself. Therefore the descriptions of Brahman as the effulgence of Lord Chaitanya, the Paramatma as His partial representation, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna as identical with Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu must be verified by evidence from authoritative Vedic literatures.

The author wants to establish first that the essence of the Vedas is the visnu-tattva, the Absolute Truth, Vishnu, the all-pervading Godhead. The visnu-tattva has different categories, of which the highest is Lord Krishna, the ultimate visnu-tattva, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita and throughout the Vedic literature. In Srimad-Bhagavatam the same Supreme Personality of Godhead Krsna is described as Nanda-suta, the son of King Nanda. Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami says that Nandasuta has again appeared as Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and he bases this statement on his understanding that the Vedic literature concludes there is no difference between Lord Krishna and Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

This the author will prove. If it is thus proved that Sri Krishna is the origin of all tattvas (truths), namely Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan, and that there is no difference between Sri Krishna and Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, it will not be difficult to understand that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is also the same origin of all tattvas. The same Absolute Truth, as He is revealed to students of different realizations, is called Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan.

A good soul is of a good-hearted person. So now are you asking, are there good-hearted people out there? Or how to identify where a person has a good soul? Buddy, being a good soul is something one carries with them. It is a powerful magnetising trait. You will know if you ever interact with somebody even for a minute. It is in their smile, or just the way they talk to a seller, or simply how they feel about pain or joys of people. So yes, there are good souls around you. Around us. God made us in his own reflection. Everything that is divine, is soothing and peaceful.

People who carry that divinity in their hearts are for sure good souls. You can sit and just recall any incident when somebody helped you without asking, or a stranger with whom you had the most meaningful chat. Sometimes you talk to a person and it fills you with hope. Their presence is calming. A person who is in peace with himself or herself can radiate a tremendous calm energy. This radiation of thought helps transfer of calmness in most people who come in contact with such souls.Such people have angelic healing vibes.

It is not necessary that only so called "god men" or well-known figures are good souls. Many times one can find such a presence in ordinary people. In fact, sometimes well-known persons are very troubled. While there are some people who are big in the donation game, but their presence is uneasy. Their greed in power, position or money is very high and higher the greed is, higher is their insecurity. This is then reflected in their "presence". Lately we had seen the example of noble people like Sonu Sood, an Indian bollywood actor who sponsored the trips of migrant labour reaching their home lands during the pandemic.

He is out there , helping so many people in this pandemic. He is definitely a good soul. He is playing the role of guardian angel for these people. So anytime if the helped ones will think of or remember Sonu, it would be as a man with a heart of gold. We are always surrounded by our guardian angels. If you look closely you will realise how many times a good soul has crossed and guided your path. There is no unique identifier for the soul. Every soul is part of the cosmic soul. There is one soul in everybody, which is absolute, which is your true-self.

Our karmas get reincarnated from one birth to another and the cycle of birth and life continues till one attains Nirvana. Nirvana means “blowing out of the flame” - “ cessation of the flame”. The closer you get to your soul the greater is the chance you attain Nirvana. When someone asked Buddha, “Will you be beyond death?” Buddha said, “ No! I will not be. I will drop out of existence just like a flame that goes out.” This is liberation :- to cease completely. To be is to be somehow,somewhere in slavery. To attain Nirvana is to attain your soul your true-self, which is absolute- eternal. Om Shanti