Srila Prabhupada Answers the Jiva Question-Part2
Because the Supreme Personality of Godhead is all-spiritual, He can descend from the spiritual sky without changing His body, and thus He is known as acyuta, or infallible. When a living entity falls down to the material world, however, he has to accept a material body, and therefore, in his material embodiment, he cannot be called acyuta. Because he falls down from his real engagement in the service of the Lord, the living entity gets a material body to suffer or try to enjoy in the miserable material conditions of life. Therefore the fallen living entity is cyuta, whereas the Lord is called acyuta (Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.20.37, purport).
Both the Lord and the living entity, being qualitatively spirit soul, have the tendency for peaceful enjoyment, but when the part of the Supreme Personality of Godhead unfortunately wants to enjoy independently, without Krsna, he is put into the material world, where he begins his life as Brahma and is gradually degraded to the status of an ant or a worm in stool (Srimad-Bhagavatam 9.24.58, purport).
The conditioned state is caused by misuse of the individual independence of the spiritual platform, for this separates the living entity from the association of the spiritual energy. But when the living entity is enlightened by the grace of the Supreme Lord or His pure devotee and becomes inclined to revive his original state of loving service, he is on the most auspicious platform of eternal bliss and knowledge. The marginal jiva, or living entity, misuses his independence and becomes averse to the eternal service attitude when he independently thinks he is not energy but the energetic. This misconception of his own existence leads him to the attitude of lording it over material nature (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila 5.66 purport).
The following information is there in the Madhyandi-nayana-sruti: sa va esa brahma-nistha idaµ sariraµ marttyam atisrjya brahmabhisampadya brahmana pasyati brahmana srnoti brahmanaivedaµ sarvam anubhavanti. It is stated here that when a living entity gives up this material embodiment and enters into the spiritual world, he revives his spiritual body, and in his spiritual body he can see the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face. He can hear and speak to Him face to face, and he can understand the Supreme Personality as He is (Bhagavad-gita 15.7 purport).
In the same purport, Srila Prabhupada further says:
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.
If we are going to discuss the original constitutional position of the living being and his falldown, what higher authority could there be than Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. When asked by Sanatana Gosvami, “Who am I?” the Lord replied:
It is the living entity’s constitutional position to be an eternal servant of Krsna.[162]
It has been suggested that the reason for the conditioned soul’s entrance into the material world is due to his failure to awaken a supposedly dormant, potential tendency to serve Krsna. This is clearly contradicted by the references to forgetfulness of an existing relationship of service. Srila Prabhupada describes the real reason for the falldown:
One should understand that due to his desire to enjoy himself in competition with Krsna, the living entity comes into material existence.
We should give up the idea that without Krsna we can enjoy freedom in this material world. This idea is the reason we have become entangled. Now it is our duty to seek shelter again at the Lord’s lotus feet.This shelter is described as abhaya, or fearless. Since Krsna is not subject to birth, death, old age, or disease, and since we are part and parcel of Krsna, we also are not subject to birth, death, old age, and disease, but we have become subject to these illusory problems because of our forgetfulness of Krsna and our position as His eternal servants (jivera svarupa haya krsnera ‘nitya-dasa’). Therefore, if we practice devotional service by always thinking of the Lord, always glorifying Him, and always chanting about Him, as described in text 37 (srnvan grnan saµsmarayaµs ca cintayan), we will be reinstated in our original constitutional position and thus be saved (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.2.39, purport).
Thus Krsna knows the cause of the distressed condition of the conditioned soul. He therefore descends from His original position to instruct the conditioned soul and inform him about his forgetfulness of his relationship with Krsna. Krsna exhibits Himself in His relationships in Vrndavana and at the Battle of Kuruksetra so that people will be attracted to Him and again return home, back to Godhead… If we revive our original intimate relationship with Krsna, our distressed condition in the material world will be mitigated (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 20.130, purport).
When the pure soul wants to give up the Lord’s service to enjoy the material world, Krsna certainly gives him a chance to enter the material world (Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.14.1).
Part of many recent theories on the original condition of the jiva is that it was not situated in a direct rasa with Krsna. But in his purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.3, Srila Prabhupada states:
Every living entity, beginning from Brahma, the firstborn living being within the material world, down to the insignificant ant, desires to relish some sort of taste derived from sense perceptions. These sensual pleasures are technically called rasas… [here the rasas are listed]… Such rasas are displayed between man and man and between animal and animal. There is no possibility of an exchange or rasa between a man and an animal or between a man and any other species of living beings within the material world. The rasas are exchanged between members of the same species. But as far as the spirit souls are concerned, they are one qualitatively with the Supreme Lord. Therefore, the rasas were originally exchanged between the spiritual living being and the spiritual whole, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Note that the passage starts with a clear reference to conditioned souls in the material world. They display rasas. Then it is said of these rasas that they were originally exchanged between these living entities and the Lord. Then what happens?
In the material existence, the rasa is experienced in a perverted form, which is temporary.
Srila Prabhupada concludes:
One who attains full knowledge of these different rasas, which are the basic principle of activities, can understand the false representations of the original rasas which are reflected in the material world.
As stated in Srimad Bhagavatam, liberation means reinstatement in one’s original position. The original position is one of rendering service to the Lord (bhakti-yogena, bhaktya) (Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.27.1, purport).
In his purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.9.39, Srila Prabhupada states:
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, is the object for fulfilling the senses of all living entities. Illusioned by the glaring reflection of the external energy, the living entities worship the senses instead of engaging them in properly fulfilling the desires of the Supreme… Originally the senses of the living entity were awarded for this purpose, namely to engage them in the transcendental loving service of the Lord or that of His devotees, but the conditioned souls, illusioned by the material energy, became captivated by sense enjoyment. Therefore the whole process of God consciousness is meant to rectify the conditional activities of the senses and to re-engage them in the direct service of the Lord.
The word re-engage is significant because it confirms that in the original position the living entity was engaged in direct service to the Lord by means of transcendental senses. Srila Prabhupada further states:
Servants like Brahmaji, Naradaji, and Vyasaji, and company become busy with the same purpose of the Lord: to reclaim the conditioned souls from the field of sense gratification and return them to the normal stage of engaging the senses in the service of the Lord.
The words reclaim and return are significant. The original position of the living entity is clearly one of direct service.
In his purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.24.61, Srila Prabhupada summarizes the original constitutional position of the living entity as well as his falldown:
This fact is explained by a Vaisnava kavi or poet: krsna bhuli ’sei jiva anadi-bahir-mukha / ataeva maya tare deya saµsara-dunkha. When the living entity forgets the Supreme Lord and wants to enjoy himself independently, imitating the Supreme Lord, he is captured by the false notion that he is the enjoyer and is separated from the Supreme Lord.
In his purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.16.40, Srila Prabhupada quotes the following important verse from the Narada-pascaratra and translates it in such a way as to clearly indicate the original constitutional position of the fallen jiva:
One should be free from all material designations and cleansed of all material contaminations. He should be restored to his pure identity, in which he engages his senses in the service of the proprietor of the senses. That is called devotional service.[163]
Here it is clear that the pure identity to which the jiva is restored is one of direct personal service to the Lord with transcendental senses. There is no question of merely a dormant propensity to enter into a service relationship:
In our original relationship with the Supreme Lord there is real love, and that love is reflected pervertedly through material conditions. Our real love is continuous and unending, but because that love is reflected pervertedly in this material world, it lacks continuity and is inebriating (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Introduction, p. 9).
The whole basis of Krsna consciousness and a relationship with Krsna is the pleasure potency of Krsna Himself. Srimati Radharani, the damsels of Vraja, and Krsna’s cowherd boyfriends are all expansions of Krsna’s pleasure potency. We all have a tendency toward pleasure because the source from which we emanate is fully potent in pleasure. Impersonalists cannot think in these terms, for they deny the pleasure potency… All relationships with Krsna which aim at satisfying Krsna’s senses are manifestations of Krsna’s pleasure potency. As far as the individual soul is concerned, it is originally a part and parcel of the pleasure potency of the reservoir of pleasure Himself (Science of Self-Realization p. 301).
In his purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.10.12, Srila Prabhupada states:
The Lord is the supreme enjoyer and the living entities are meant to assist the Lord in His enjoyment and thus participate in the transcendental enjoyment of everyone. The enjoyer and the enjoyed both participate in enjoyment, but, deluded by the illusory energy, the living entities want to become the enjoyer like the Lord, although they are not meant for enjoyment.
Srila Prabhupada further states:
In the spiritual world the living entities are pure in nature, and therefore they are associates in the enjoyment of the Supreme Lord. In the material world the spirit of enjoyment of the living entities by dint of their own actions (karma) gradually fades by the laws of nature, and thus the illusory energy dictates in the ears of the conditioned souls that they should become one with the Lord. This is the last snare of the illusory energy. When the last illusion is also cleared off by the mercy of the Lord, the living entity again becomes reinstated in his original position and thus becomes actually liberated.
It is fairly well known that Srila Prabhupada in his letters and conversations made many statements about souls directly coming from Vaikuntha or Goloka
Both the Lord and the living entity, being qualitatively spirit soul, have the tendency for peaceful enjoyment, but when the part of the Supreme Personality of Godhead unfortunately wants to enjoy independently, without Krsna, he is put into the material world, where he begins his life as Brahma and is gradually degraded to the status of an ant or a worm in stool (Srimad-Bhagavatam 9.24.58, purport).
The conditioned state is caused by misuse of the individual independence of the spiritual platform, for this separates the living entity from the association of the spiritual energy. But when the living entity is enlightened by the grace of the Supreme Lord or His pure devotee and becomes inclined to revive his original state of loving service, he is on the most auspicious platform of eternal bliss and knowledge. The marginal jiva, or living entity, misuses his independence and becomes averse to the eternal service attitude when he independently thinks he is not energy but the energetic. This misconception of his own existence leads him to the attitude of lording it over material nature (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila 5.66 purport).
The following information is there in the Madhyandi-nayana-sruti: sa va esa brahma-nistha idaµ sariraµ marttyam atisrjya brahmabhisampadya brahmana pasyati brahmana srnoti brahmanaivedaµ sarvam anubhavanti. It is stated here that when a living entity gives up this material embodiment and enters into the spiritual world, he revives his spiritual body, and in his spiritual body he can see the Supreme Personality of Godhead face to face. He can hear and speak to Him face to face, and he can understand the Supreme Personality as He is (Bhagavad-gita 15.7 purport).
In the same purport, Srila Prabhupada further says:
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.
If we are going to discuss the original constitutional position of the living being and his falldown, what higher authority could there be than Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. When asked by Sanatana Gosvami, “Who am I?” the Lord replied:
It is the living entity’s constitutional position to be an eternal servant of Krsna.[162]
It has been suggested that the reason for the conditioned soul’s entrance into the material world is due to his failure to awaken a supposedly dormant, potential tendency to serve Krsna. This is clearly contradicted by the references to forgetfulness of an existing relationship of service. Srila Prabhupada describes the real reason for the falldown:
One should understand that due to his desire to enjoy himself in competition with Krsna, the living entity comes into material existence.
We should give up the idea that without Krsna we can enjoy freedom in this material world. This idea is the reason we have become entangled. Now it is our duty to seek shelter again at the Lord’s lotus feet.This shelter is described as abhaya, or fearless. Since Krsna is not subject to birth, death, old age, or disease, and since we are part and parcel of Krsna, we also are not subject to birth, death, old age, and disease, but we have become subject to these illusory problems because of our forgetfulness of Krsna and our position as His eternal servants (jivera svarupa haya krsnera ‘nitya-dasa’). Therefore, if we practice devotional service by always thinking of the Lord, always glorifying Him, and always chanting about Him, as described in text 37 (srnvan grnan saµsmarayaµs ca cintayan), we will be reinstated in our original constitutional position and thus be saved (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.2.39, purport).
Thus Krsna knows the cause of the distressed condition of the conditioned soul. He therefore descends from His original position to instruct the conditioned soul and inform him about his forgetfulness of his relationship with Krsna. Krsna exhibits Himself in His relationships in Vrndavana and at the Battle of Kuruksetra so that people will be attracted to Him and again return home, back to Godhead… If we revive our original intimate relationship with Krsna, our distressed condition in the material world will be mitigated (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 20.130, purport).
When the pure soul wants to give up the Lord’s service to enjoy the material world, Krsna certainly gives him a chance to enter the material world (Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.14.1).
Part of many recent theories on the original condition of the jiva is that it was not situated in a direct rasa with Krsna. But in his purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.3, Srila Prabhupada states:
Every living entity, beginning from Brahma, the firstborn living being within the material world, down to the insignificant ant, desires to relish some sort of taste derived from sense perceptions. These sensual pleasures are technically called rasas… [here the rasas are listed]… Such rasas are displayed between man and man and between animal and animal. There is no possibility of an exchange or rasa between a man and an animal or between a man and any other species of living beings within the material world. The rasas are exchanged between members of the same species. But as far as the spirit souls are concerned, they are one qualitatively with the Supreme Lord. Therefore, the rasas were originally exchanged between the spiritual living being and the spiritual whole, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Note that the passage starts with a clear reference to conditioned souls in the material world. They display rasas. Then it is said of these rasas that they were originally exchanged between these living entities and the Lord. Then what happens?
In the material existence, the rasa is experienced in a perverted form, which is temporary.
Srila Prabhupada concludes:
One who attains full knowledge of these different rasas, which are the basic principle of activities, can understand the false representations of the original rasas which are reflected in the material world.
As stated in Srimad Bhagavatam, liberation means reinstatement in one’s original position. The original position is one of rendering service to the Lord (bhakti-yogena, bhaktya) (Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.27.1, purport).
In his purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.9.39, Srila Prabhupada states:
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, is the object for fulfilling the senses of all living entities. Illusioned by the glaring reflection of the external energy, the living entities worship the senses instead of engaging them in properly fulfilling the desires of the Supreme… Originally the senses of the living entity were awarded for this purpose, namely to engage them in the transcendental loving service of the Lord or that of His devotees, but the conditioned souls, illusioned by the material energy, became captivated by sense enjoyment. Therefore the whole process of God consciousness is meant to rectify the conditional activities of the senses and to re-engage them in the direct service of the Lord.
The word re-engage is significant because it confirms that in the original position the living entity was engaged in direct service to the Lord by means of transcendental senses. Srila Prabhupada further states:
Servants like Brahmaji, Naradaji, and Vyasaji, and company become busy with the same purpose of the Lord: to reclaim the conditioned souls from the field of sense gratification and return them to the normal stage of engaging the senses in the service of the Lord.
The words reclaim and return are significant. The original position of the living entity is clearly one of direct service.
In his purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.24.61, Srila Prabhupada summarizes the original constitutional position of the living entity as well as his falldown:
This fact is explained by a Vaisnava kavi or poet: krsna bhuli ’sei jiva anadi-bahir-mukha / ataeva maya tare deya saµsara-dunkha. When the living entity forgets the Supreme Lord and wants to enjoy himself independently, imitating the Supreme Lord, he is captured by the false notion that he is the enjoyer and is separated from the Supreme Lord.
In his purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.16.40, Srila Prabhupada quotes the following important verse from the Narada-pascaratra and translates it in such a way as to clearly indicate the original constitutional position of the fallen jiva:
One should be free from all material designations and cleansed of all material contaminations. He should be restored to his pure identity, in which he engages his senses in the service of the proprietor of the senses. That is called devotional service.[163]
Here it is clear that the pure identity to which the jiva is restored is one of direct personal service to the Lord with transcendental senses. There is no question of merely a dormant propensity to enter into a service relationship:
In our original relationship with the Supreme Lord there is real love, and that love is reflected pervertedly through material conditions. Our real love is continuous and unending, but because that love is reflected pervertedly in this material world, it lacks continuity and is inebriating (Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Introduction, p. 9).
The whole basis of Krsna consciousness and a relationship with Krsna is the pleasure potency of Krsna Himself. Srimati Radharani, the damsels of Vraja, and Krsna’s cowherd boyfriends are all expansions of Krsna’s pleasure potency. We all have a tendency toward pleasure because the source from which we emanate is fully potent in pleasure. Impersonalists cannot think in these terms, for they deny the pleasure potency… All relationships with Krsna which aim at satisfying Krsna’s senses are manifestations of Krsna’s pleasure potency. As far as the individual soul is concerned, it is originally a part and parcel of the pleasure potency of the reservoir of pleasure Himself (Science of Self-Realization p. 301).
In his purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.10.12, Srila Prabhupada states:
The Lord is the supreme enjoyer and the living entities are meant to assist the Lord in His enjoyment and thus participate in the transcendental enjoyment of everyone. The enjoyer and the enjoyed both participate in enjoyment, but, deluded by the illusory energy, the living entities want to become the enjoyer like the Lord, although they are not meant for enjoyment.
Srila Prabhupada further states:
In the spiritual world the living entities are pure in nature, and therefore they are associates in the enjoyment of the Supreme Lord. In the material world the spirit of enjoyment of the living entities by dint of their own actions (karma) gradually fades by the laws of nature, and thus the illusory energy dictates in the ears of the conditioned souls that they should become one with the Lord. This is the last snare of the illusory energy. When the last illusion is also cleared off by the mercy of the Lord, the living entity again becomes reinstated in his original position and thus becomes actually liberated.
It is fairly well known that Srila Prabhupada in his letters and conversations made many statements about souls directly coming from Vaikuntha or Goloka
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