Envy Rules, Kindly Follow!
BY: BALAVIDYA DASA
Jan 10, CALIFORNIA, USA (SUN) — For many years now an idea has been bandied about in ISKCON, and only ISKCON, not in any other Vaisnava sampradaya, that the jiva in Goloka-Vrndavana becomes envious of Krsna, and as a result that jiva is cast into the material world where he rotates in the cycle of birth and death for what may be billions of lifetimes of ignorance and misery.
Well, so much for krsna-prema! Apparently it is not at all satisfying, Krsna and His devotee regularly give each other up, and the strong tendency is for the soul to wander off from the rasa-lila for pastures anew down there in the jolly material world. Yes, why rotate in the rasa-lila, when one can rotate in the cycle of birth and death?
And what’s all this about Krsna being “All-Attractive”. Apparently this is all just empty propaganda. Krsna actually should be known as the Object of Envy, not attraction. And unlimited, unlimited, unlimited jivas in unlimited, unlimited, unlimited universes have come to this conclusion. “I’m outta here! You can keep Goloka and all that ecstasy! I’m off. Thank God for the Maya-shakti!”
Sri Krsna, who’s He? Better to change His Name to “Not so All-Attractive.” Or maybe “Temporarily All-Attractive.” What about “Subject to Envy at Home Planet?”
What to speak of “Infinitely-Intelligent”. How Krsna can be infinitely intelligent when He’s made a home for Himself wherein billions of souls are becoming envious of Him? Not really a smart thing to arrange when You are the Supreme Controller. Krsna must be very embarrassed to see all those souls becoming envious and rejecting Him in front of Mother Yasoda. Yes, all those remaining faithful servitors, it must plant a doubt in their minds: “Well, there are a lot of souls going to the jolly party down there in the material world. Maybe I should have a look to upgrade my pleasure by becoming a worm in the stool. Someone else can make the garlands. I’m outta here! ”
Is not the point clear? If we accept the theory that the soul falls from an established relationship of pure-prema with Sri Krsna, then Krsna and that relationship are not perfect. Rather that relationship is an on/off temporary affair, and Krsna Himself really quite forgettable once jiva is down there in the material world, chewing the chewed.
Actually, for the demoniac, this is the appeal of the fall-from-Goloka theory: It is an insult to Krsna, His servitors, and the relationship between them. From this theory, the clear implication is that these three are very much fallacious. Krsna is not All-Attractive, His servitors are not faithful, and bhakti-rasa is neither perfect, nor satisfying, nor permanent. So by propagating this theory, all three are degraded from their sublime transcendental position to secondary categories that have all the material qualities of impermanence and imperfection.
Having insulted the Lord, His servitors, and Bhakti-Marg in that way, the demoniac swell with pride. “Who’s going to be Krsna’s devotee now that I have proved it’s all quite mundane up there? I just killed three birds with one stone.”
When these demons are countered with the Vedic evidences that this writer has given in his previous posting “No Contradiction in Teachings of Srila Prabhupada on the Fall of the Jiva”, their response is quite disingenuous: They ignore Vedanta-Sutra, they ignore the Seventh Goswami, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, they ignore Bhagavad-Gita, and they ignore Srila Prabhupada’s conclusion:
“The conclusion is that no one falls from the spiritual world, or Vaikuntha planet, for it is the eternal abode.” Purport, Sb. 3.16.26.
Instead of accepting this statement, and similar multifarious others, as the “conclusion” of Srila Prabhupada and offering their obeisances as defeated, they latch onto the chance to now denigrate Srila Prabhupada. They have already degraded Krsna, His Servitors, and Bhakti, they now see a chance to attack Krsna’s representative in the material world-the Guru and His commentaries. Srila Prabhupada’s teachings are “contradictory”. This proposed vacillation brings into question whether Srila Prabhupada actually knew what he was talking about. “Maybe he wasn’t sure about the jiva issue?” “Therefore maybe the rest of his commentaries are speculative and we need a good editor in there to change things around. Someone from the BBT.”
And why stop at the Guru and his commentaries? Why not have a swipe at the Vedas and Puranas, and their compiler Veda-Vyasa? “Apparently”, Veda-Vyasa has not done a very comprehensive job in compiling the Vedas and Their corollaries. Why? Because in all those sastras, Veda-Vyasa forgot to explain that the jiva falls from prema-rasa in Goloka out of envy. In fact, Veda-Vyasa got it all wrong and throughout the Vedas, Vedanta-sutra, and Bhagavad-Gita made the mistake of clearly stating many times that “No-one falls from the Abode of the Lord.”
Let this be the challenge to the fool and rascal purveyors of this groundless fall-from-Goloka theory: Kindly provide one description directly from the Vedas of a fall out of envy of the Supreme Lord of the jiva from Goloka Vrndavana…. Just one!
We have heard your self-serving contorted misinterpretations of Srila Prabhupada’s statements. So there is no need for more of that. We know your position on that. We know that in of the vast body of Srila Prabhupada’s recorded teachings that there are statements that can be bent in favor of ‘fall from Vaikuntha’. We know that you are good at word-bending and ignoring what doesn’t suit you. In this way you remind us of the mayavadis that will use the Vedas to prove that Krsna is made from maya and that ultimately the Absolute Truth is formless and impersonal. In fact, not only do you use the same ignoring and word-bending as the mayavadis, but also the implications of your theory make a nice fit with the mayavadis: Krsna and relationship with Him are subject to the rule of Maya-devi. It’s all temporary and imperfect.
And what is the ultimate implication of this fall from Goloka theory? It is that “Envy of Krsna defeats Love of Krsna, even in Goloka”. Now you see why it is so appealing to the demons: “Apparently”, Envy is the Power!
So purveyors, just give one clear and full description from the Vedas and Purana of the residents of Goloka Vrndavana becoming “envious” of Krsna and falling to the material world. We emphasize, because we know you love to bend words and ignore, that the description must be from the original sastras. Is that clear enough? Just one description from the ultimate authority of the Vedas of something that has happened, according to your theory, literally trillions and trillions and trillions of unlimited times!
Now even you cannot say the above request is “contradictory”.
We invite the biggest in the wobbly ISKCON superstructure to respond with this telling Vedic tale of ‘Envy in Goloka’. It is well known that Hrdyananda Goswami, Jayavaita Swami, Drutakarma dasa, Dravida dasa, Gopi-paranadhana dasa believe this absurd theory.
Oh great pandits! Where’s your sastric evidence…….?
We hope this is found helpful,
Your servant, Balavidya dasa
