Here someone may ask: If it is by the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead that the individual spirit souls are given independence, and if by exercising that independence the souls find only sufferings, then why is that gift of independence considered mercy on the Lord's part?
Fearing that someone would ask this question, the author of the sutras speaks the following words:
Sutra 20
Because by the Lord's mercy they are independent, the individual spirit souls can turn from the Lord and love others in His place.
Commentary by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura
To make them powerful and glorious, the Supreme Lord gives independence to the individual spirit souls. Using this independence, the souls may forget the Lord and become attached to the objects of the material senses. That is the meaning. In the Upanisads it is said:
"Entering with the individual soul, I will create the name and form."
============ Siddhaswarupananda - Jagad Guru Speaks
However, neither the Sri Ishopanishad nor any other Vedic literature recommends that we neglect bodily needs. Bhagavad-gita states:
There is no possibility of one's becoming a yogi, O Arjuna, if one eats too much, or eats too little, sleeps too much or does not sleep enough.
~Bhagavad-gita 6:16
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In the Mundaka Upanisad (3.1.10) it is said:
"A person who is pure in heart attains whatever he desires. He enters whatever he desires. A person who desires auspiciousness should worship such a self-realised soul."
In the Mundaka Upanisad (3.2.2) it is also said:
"One who desires material things is born again to fulfil his desires. A person who attains the Supreme finds that all his desires are fulfilled. All his material desires disappear."
"What You have done here is actually mercy for us, since the punishment You give to the wicked certainly drives away all their contamination. Indeed, because this conditioned soul, our husband, is so sinful that he has assumed the body of a serpent, Your anger toward him is obviously to be understood as Your mercy."
