Question: What does the term self-realization mean? Does it refer to the understanding that we are not these bodies or the understanding that we are servants and our prime most duty is to serve Krishna?
Answer by Romapada Swami: Both! To understand that we are not these bodies is the first lesson in spiritual life. But who are we? Definition by negation is insufficient. The next lesson then is to understand that we are eternal spirit souls, but that knowledge is also incomplete without further understanding the nature and the activities of the spirit soul in its original state.
The soul is not inert; rather his activity in the pure state is service to God and, resulting from his intimate relationship and loving exchanges in service to the Lord, he is full of transcendental bliss. When all of one’s activities are actually above bodily consciousness and on the platform of spirit, beyond theoretical acceptance, i.e. in a mood of service to Krishna – that is self-realization! Self realization is concurrent with God-realization just as someone coming from darkness into the presence of sunlight is simultaneously able to see the source of light as well as one’s own self. See SB 1.2.21: “seeing the self as master”.
