No Evidence Available in the Vedas of Fall from Goloka through Envy
BY: BALAVIDYA DASA
Jan 31, USA (SUN) — Not a proverbial peep. In our previous posting, "Envy Rules, Kindly Follow", we finished by asking the 'fall-from-Goloka' theorists to provide just one quote from the Vedas and Puranas describing their proposed tale of 'envy in Goloka'. Of the three ultimate authorities-guru, sadhu and sastra-sastra is the highest. The Vedas are the breathing of the Supreme Lord and thus non-different from the Glorious Lord:
"The Personality of Godhead produced the four Vedas by His breathing, and He is seen and realized through the transcendental sound of the Vedas. Similarly, the Bhagavad-gita is the sound representation of the Lord, and there is no difference in identity."
Srila Prabhupada, Purport, Srimad-Bhagavatam. 1.6.25
The sadhus expound and elucidate the Vedas for the benefit of all souls. The sadhus know that contrary ideas outside the realm of the Vedas simply evidence the rebellious ignorance of the fallen soul. Such speculative ideas are produced by the churning mental concoction of the deluded soul. They are ghosts haunting the fallen soul within the darkness of the material energy. These ghosts whisper what the fallen soul egoistically wants to hear: "You are the supreme and most important element in creation. Your ideas are the absolute truth, the foundation of all understanding. Any ideas that conflict with yours must be incorrect even if those ideas are against the siddhanta of the Vedas."
The fallen soul has rebelled against the supremacy of the Supreme Lord, thus he is in the material world. In the material world the supremacy of the Lord is manifest in the Vedas. And the devotional surrender that is the antithesis of the rebellious nature of the fallen soul manifests as surrender to the Vedas. Without acceptance of the import of the Vedas, the path to true surrender remains closed. Acceptance of the Vedas is the essential element for the attainment of the spiritual platform. In Vedic ontology, those that do not accept the Vedas are defined as atheists. However, the fallen soul overly attached to mental speculation and sensual pursuit has no interest in the Vedas. Rather, he feels his material life is threatened by the Vedic gospel.
The Vedic gospel is powerfully presented by the qualified spiritual master, who knows that presenting the Vedas is non-different from presenting the Supreme Lord Himself. By the expert words of the spiritual master, the self-evident authority of the Vedas becomes clearly apparent. Those that are intelligent, non-envious and fortunate surrender to the Vedas, but those whose determination is to continue in chasing the illusory so-called enjoyment of material life maintain their rebellious attitude to the Lord by rebelling against the Vedic import.
This rebellion takes two forms: outright dismissal and self-serving re-interpretation. The errant soul when faced with the demand of surrender to the Supreme Lord that is the ultimate import of the Vedas seeks to escape this demand by these two methods: dismissal and reinterpretation. Thus within the material world, there are many philosophies that seek to dismiss outright the Vedas. "The Vedas are mythology." "The Vedas are ancient books that have no relevance to life in the modern world." "The Vedas are the poetry of imaginative scribes." "Life comes from matter, so the transcendental world presented by the Vedas is just a dream." "A basic tenet of Buddhism is to deny the validity of the Vedas." The learned reader will be acquainted with these mistaken propositions that at least have a certain honesty in the way they unabashedly dismiss the authority of the Vedas. The second method of attacking the Vedas is the "snake in the grass" approach. The snake takes shelter in the long grass seeking his chance to inject poison in his victim. Similarly there are many persons and philosophies which apparently take shelter of the Vedas, however their intention is to poison their victims with a vile misinterpretation of the Vedas.
The Mayavadi philosophy is one of these "snake in the grass" philosophies. The Mayavadis from all the Vedas, and in particular the Upanishads, have gleaned four statements that with a twist of meaning can be used to support their re-interpretation of the Vedas. They inventively call these four statements the "four maha-vakyas" of the Vedas. However, this term is a completely self-serving tactic. The whole of the Vedas have validity and in no place are the four statements called "maha-vakyas". However, by inventively creating a special name for these four statements, the Mayavadis hope to draw attention to them and by misinterpreting these statements convince the innocent of their bogus philosophy.
Recently, we see the rtvik-guru deviants employ the same tactic. However, they can stress only one word "henceforward" in all of Srila Prabhupada's vast production. What makes their idea even more farcical is the fact that this one word is in a letter composed by Tamal Krsna Goswami. However, provoked by their underlying, demoniac desire to destroy the age-old parampara system enunciated in the Vedas, this means nothing to them. They simply insist on their misinterpretation. In this way, they march the path from being ignorant fools to being demoniac rascals, who driven by their mental speculation and false ego refuse to listen to all statements of guru, sadhu and sastra that clearly countermands their nonsense ideas. Of course, recently they were asked to come up with just one instance from sadhu and sastra to support their impossible ideas. And the result, absolutely nothing. Yes, absolutely nothing to support their "10,000 year rtvik-diksa-guru philosophy". In their failure they simply resort to repetitive propaganda and disingenuous word-jugglery that simply further exposes the weakness of their arguments and mischievous rascal nature. Thus, ultimately, they only expose their insincerity in following Srila Prabhupada, sadhu and Vedic sastra. Without this surrender, they will remain in the material world.
Now we have the "envy in Goloka" personalities. They also employ the "snake in the grass" tactic. They also presumptuously argue that they are giving the truth of Srila Prabhupada, and yet also cannot offer anything directly from the Vedas to support their claim of "envy in Goloka". It means nothing to them that Srila Prabhupada has conclusively said:
"The conclusion is that no one falls from the spiritual world, or Vaikuntha planet, for it is the eternal abode."
Purport, Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.16.26
They disingenuously either ignore this "conclusion" or give some fanciful interpretation that suits their purposes. This plain statement is in the midst of a whole section of the Srimad-Bhagavatam with Srila Prabhupada's purports that clearly explain that the only souls descending from the spiritual planets are those souls coming for engagement in the direct lila of the Supreme Lord. This fact is irrefutable. However, instead of intelligently adjusting their ideas, they search the vast body of Srila Prabhupada's teachings and conversations for their own similarly self-serving "envy in Goloka maha-vakyas". They then try to assume the moral high ground by using inventive phrases like "Prabhupada-siddhanta" and seek to support their nonsense by implying that those who do not accept their twisted "Goloka-envy-maha-vakyas" are somehow against Srila Prabhupada. Thus they also employ repetitive propaganda and false posturing of a self-awarded exclusive faithfulness to Srila Prabhupada to support their false claims and clear misinterpretation. This is all they have to offer, certainly nothing from the Vedas.
As we say, in our previous offering "Envy Rules, Kindly Follow" we asked for just one sloka from the Vedas to support their nonsense claims of "envy in Goloka", but what is the result. Absolutely, nothing. Absolutely nothing, but more of the same convoluted, aimlessly meandering, self-serving misinterpretation and unsupportable pompous posturing. Yes, and we have to emphasize, absolutely nothing from the Vedas supporting their impossible claims of "envy in Goloka". Of course, the Vedas have not missed out on the subject of the fall of the jiva:
"In the Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad, 4.3.9, we find:
tasya va etasya purunasya dve eva sthane bhavata
idam ca paraloka-sthanaà ca sandhyam trtiyam
svapna-sthanam tasmin sandhye sthane tisthan ete
ubhe sthane pasyati idam ca paraloka-sthanam ca
"The jiva has access to two places, both of which he may seek, this material world and the spiritual realm. He is situated in svapna-sthanam, the dream-like third state, on the margin of these two worlds [the Casual Ocean]. From that middle position he is able to see both the material and the spiritual worlds."
"Further, the following statement from the Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad, 4.3.18, describes the nature of the marginal position of the jiva:
tad yaths mahs matsya ubhe kule'
nusancarati purvam ca param caivam
evsyam purusa etsv ubhav antav
anusancarati svapnantam ca buddhantam ca
"The symptoms of the marginal existence are like those of a huge aquatic who is capable of living on both the eastern and western sides of the river at his own will. Similarly, the jiva soul, situated within the waters of the Causal Ocean, which lies between the material and spiritual worlds, is able to reside in both the dream world of matter and the spiritual world of divine wakefulness."
One might ask how has the jiva has arrived in the Casual Ocean. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur in Jaiva-dharma, Chapter Fifteen, has given a full description:
"In Goloka Vrndavana, Sri Balarama manifests unlimited nitya-parsadas, eternal associates, belonging to the jiva category for the service of Sri Krsna. Similarly, in Vaikuntha, Lord Sankarsana manifests unlimited nitya-parsadas also of the jiva category for the service of Sri Narayana. These nitya-parsadas are eternally engaged in serving their object of worship, the Supreme Godhead, who is absorbed in rasa. They are eternally situated in their svarupa, remain constantly engrossed in satisfying their beloved Lordship, and ever possess enthusiasm and affection for the Lord that never diminishes. They are forever extremely spiritually potent, being imbued with the cit-sakti of the Lord. They have no connection with maya-they are even unmindful of her existence. They are permanent residents of the spiritual world and are very far away from maya. They are fully absorbed in simply relishing the bliss of devotional service to their beloved Lord. Selfish material joys and sorrows are totally alien to these eternally liberated souls. Prema being their life and soul, they do not even know that lamentation, death or fear actually exist.
"Also, countless, infinitesimal jivas emanate from Karanodakasayi Maha Visnu, lying within the Causal Ocean, whose glance impregnates the maya-sakti. As these jivas are the neighbors of maya, they witness her variegatedness. The symptoms of the general mass of jivas as discussed earlier are also present in these jivas. However, because they are minuscule in size and situated at the margin, their constitutional nature is to look at both the material world and the spiritual sky. Their marginal condition makes them vulnerable because-up to this point of time-they have not been reinforced with cit-bala, the strength of spiritual potency, by the mercy of the Supreme Lord, their worshipable object. Those amongst them who desire to enjoy material nature become absorbed in matter and are thus eternally enthralled by her, while those endeavoring to serve the Divine Worshipable Object, upon receiving His mercy, are elevated to the spiritual world. Therefore, my son, we are in a most wretched state. Having forgotten our devotion and service to Sri Krsna, we are held as the captives of maya, and thus, in lieu of our original transcendental status, we are in this miserable situation."
So the above slokas directly from the Vedas and the corresponding detail from the Seventh Goswami, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur definitively clear up the matter. However, this direct description from the highest authority of the Vedas and the words of a supreme Vaisnava such as Bhaktivinoda Thakura mean nothing to the fools and rascals who wish to portray that the Supreme Abode of the Lord, Goloka-Vrndavana is a place where "envy rules". Apparently, according to their impossible philosophy, in his supremely pure state of Krsna-prema, the jiva somehow or other starts to "envy Krsna". As Krsna-prema is the purified state of the jiva and the maya-sakti has no presence on the transcendental platform, this means that the jiva has the constitutional quality of "envying Krsna". The constitution of the jiva is qualitatively equal to that of Krsna. Thus the source of this constitutional envy must be the constitutional quality of Krsna. Thus the Supreme Lord, according to the implications of their argument, is inherently "constitutionally envious". Not only that, but Krsna-prema is defeated by "envy of Krsna". Thus "envy of Krsna" becomes more powerful than "love of Krsna", even in the Supreme Lord's personal abode. What speculative offensive nonsense. Furthermore, as, for our understanding, the material world is described as one fourth of the creation, this means that approximately one fourth of all the residents in spiritual world have awakened their "constitutional envy of Krsna", rejected the ecstasy of bhakti, and preferred the cycle of birth and death in the miserable material world. Furthermore, the Vedas must be wrong, because throughout the Vedas, and at the very end sloka of the Vedanta-sutra, it is clearly stated that no-one who has attained the spiritual planets ever falls from these, the eternal Supreme Abode of the Lord:
Vedanta, 4th Adhaya, Sutra 22:
anavrttih sabdad anavrttih sabdat
an-without; avrttih-return; sabdat-because of the scriptures.
"No return, because of the scriptures. No return, because of the scriptures."
Purport by Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana
A devotee who faithfully worships and serves the Supreme Lord and then goes to the Lord's spiritual world, never returns. How is that known? The sutra explains, "sabdat" (because of the scriptures). In the Chandogya Upanisad (4.15.6) it is said:
etena pratipadyamana imam manavam avartam navartante
"They who enter the spiritual world never return to the world of men."
In the Chandogya Upanisad (4.15.1) it is said:
sa khalv eva vartayan yavad ayusam brahmalokam abhisampadyate. na ca punar avartate.
"Leaving this life, he enters the spiritual world. He never returns."
In the Bhagavad-gita (8.15 and 16) Lord Krsna declares:
mam upetya punar janma
duhkhalayam asasvatam
napnuvanti mahatmanah
samsiddhim paramam gatah
"After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogis in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection."
All these Vedic slokas describe the entry of the jiva to the eternally safe refuge of the spiritual planets in terms of "attainment". Why? Because the fallen souls of this world have never been to the spiritual planets. Thus the Vedas, as above, constantly describe the spiritual planets as places of "attainment" not "return". It is the material world to which the liberated jivas never "return". But in the befuddled intellect of the "envy in Goloka" theorists, the Vedic statements of "no return to the material world" become twisted completely into "return to Goloka". What a display of blind idiocy.
As evidenced by the Upanishad and acaryas above, the jivas of this world have emanated from Maha-Visnu and fallen from the margin between the material and spiritual worlds that is the Casual Ocean. In this position, their devotion to the Supreme Lord was in a nascent state. Perceiving the Supreme Lord's infinite supremacy in this weak position, they exerted their free will to rebel against that infinite supremacy of the Lord and resultantly fancied themselves to become independent enjoyers, as is the Lord. With such a mentality of competition with the Supreme Lord, they cannot enter the spiritual planets where co-operative devotion to the Supreme Lord is not nascent but unbounded and eternally established without "fall", as Srila Prabhupada declares. Thus they "fell" from a position above the material energy but not the spiritual planets. Maya devi has shackled them, and under the direction of the Lord, their desire for independent enjoyment is being fulfilled. The desire of independent enjoyment cannot co-exist with perception the inherent supremacy of the Lord, and so the fallen jivas have been bestowed forgetfulness and non-perception of the Lord. This is the dreamlike delusion to with all the Vaisnava acaryas refer as the condition of the fallen, rebellious jiva. Being spiritual in essence and naturally a devoted servant of the Lord, this perverted consciousness of the fallen jiva is a source of great distress and dissatisfaction to the misfortunate jiva. This distress is heightened by the foreign nature of the material nature, which is also fundamentally discordant with the innate spirituality of the jiva. When the time of this fallen jiva's imprisonment is coming to an end, by the grace of the Lord, the fallen jiva meets the genuine sadhu whose association and instruction dispel the underlying rebellion towards the Lord. By associating with the Merciful Lord through His sound incarnation, the Transcendental Name and Vedic Knowledge, the perverted consciousness of the jiva is gradually rectified under the shelter of the sadhus and guru.
The sadhu's treatment of the jiva's illusion must sometimes involve even severe chastisement to awaken the jiva from mental speculation and sensual pursuit. Thus the guru is "heavy". But this is the greatest mercy of the guru. The guru is greatly pained to see the nonsense of his disciple and out of love does all in his power to cut the misfortunate jiva free from his mental speculation. The sadhus know that if the jivas are to quickly attain liberation and Krsna-prema, then it is essential that they have the right conception of all matters, both spiritual and material. Thus the sadhus are duty-bound to forcefully expose the philosophical and illogical mistakes of the illusioned jiva, and replace such nonsense with the Vedic message. Thus Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada was known as the "Lion Guru". And Srila Prabhupada employed the "axe-chopping" technique he had learned from his Glorious Guru. Certainly, the realized, qualified guru is not a "maybe this, maybe that" personality, for he has realized the Absolute Truth, and from this position of realization cannot help but present this Absolute Knowledge forcefully. For the realized soul, the Absolute Truth is not a matter of debate, for he has seen the Truth.
However, the rebellion and concomitant anger of certain jivas is highly developed and thus they may classified as demoniac, determinedly against the sadhus and Vedas. They have unfortunately progressed from being ignorant illusioned fools to envious demoniac rascals. Interestingly, this deep resentment against the Supreme Lord in many cases attracts them to the path of religion. However they do not wish to surrender to this path, but rather wish to ruin this path out of envy. Lost to themselves, they may be largely unaware of their motivations. They may maneuver themselves into high positions within religious organizations, even legislating themselves as exclusive gurus, representing the Supreme Lord. Yet, upon attaining such positions, they exhibit great arrogance, misuse of power, mental speculation, and sensual exploitation. Inevitably, they fall from their contrived positions. Subsequently, they affect humility and repentance as suits their purposes but secretly and smugly feel a demoniac happiness to have misled and confused many neophytes on the spiritual path. Thus, even unknowingly, these rascals are resolute in their activity of attempted destruction of the sadhus and the Vedas. Kamsa is an example of this obsessive mentality of aggression against the Vedas and the sadhus.
Vedic sastric declarations mean nothing to these deviants, and even when given plain Upanishadic references on a topic such as the fall of the jiva, they blithely state that no Vedic reference has been given. In earlier essays, many references have been given to the "fall of the jiva", but the befuddled rascals pretend to themselves and others that a "no-fall" conception is being propounded. What self-serving humbug. Provoked by an underlying demoniac nature, they invent terms such as "Prabhupada-siddhanta", which they try to pass off as a glorification of a great acarya. To imply that Srila Prabhupada deviated from the Vedic siddhanta and previous acaryas is a great offense, but this is then compounded with the thoughtless assertion that Srila Prabhupada's teachings are "contradictory". Put simply, they prefer their misinterpretation of Srila Prabhupada to the role of a surrendered student. Moreover, they posture that those that quote the Vedas, Vedanta-sutra, the Seventh Goswami, Baladeva-vidyabusana are somehow not following Srila Prabhupada. What unmitigated arrogance.
Throughout his teachings, Srila Prabhupada unequivocally directs us to take shelter of guru, sadhu and sastra to resolve points of siddhanta, but the purveyors of "envy in Goloka" and "Prabhupada siddhanta" will not do this, but simultaneously posture that they are teaching what Srila Prabhupada taught. The obvious contradiction in their behavior only further evidences that they are not the representatives of Srila Prabhupada, but rather a group of fools and rascals that willfully distort the "conclusion" of Srila Prabhupada for their purpose of presenting the ultimate Supreme Abode of the Lord and the Supreme Lord as reservoirs of "envy" not eternal transcendental love.
This evidences that they are demonically intent on casting doubt in the minds of the practicing devotees who are ascending to a location and state of eternal Krsna-consciousness. For this insistent propagation of nonsense as the "conclusion" of Srila Prabhupada, their devotional life and progressive realization of siddhanta is not only halted but rather covered. They unknowingly find themselves cast in to the shadows of doubt and further mental speculation for this offence, and from these shadows they have only one tactic: further regurgitation of their unsupportable misinterpretation of Vedic siddhanta and the teachings of Srila Prabhupada. They may be beyond redemption in this life for their offence, however they must be exposed lest the path of devotion be put in doubt in the minds of unrealized neophytes, who are the only persons who will be befuddled by their unmitigated nonsense and mental speculation which they try to pass off as "Prabhupada siddhanta" by simply employing the tactic of posture and disingenuous argumentation.
If they find that they still cannot change their misinformation and posturing, we simply repeat our challenge: No more misinterpretation of Srila Prabhupada, kindly provide just one sloka, one section, one word even, directly from the Vedas that describes an ecstatic beloved servant of the Lord immersed in Krsna-prema in the Supreme Abode of the Lord becoming "envious of Krsna". Just one. Just one. Just one.
But of course, just as we have recently seen this clear demand for Vedic direct evidence will be ignored, because there is no such description, since such a event has never happened, has never happened, has never happened. And will never happen, and will never happen, and will never happen. Why? Because Srila Prabhupada, sadhu and sastra say so. They say so. They say so:
"The conclusion is that no one falls from the spiritual world, or Vaikuntha planet, for it is the eternal abode."
Srila Prabhupada, purport, Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.16.26.
However, we have fallen from the margin that is the Casual Ocean after emanation from Maha-Visnu. Why? Because, the Supreme Lord, in His form as the Vedas, has said so. He has said so. He has said so. And once we attain the Supreme Abode of the Lord, we will never return to this material world. Why? Because the Lord in the Bhagavad Gita has said so. He has said so. He has said so:
yad gatva na nivartante tad dhama paramam mama
Bhagavad-gita 15.6
Aum Tat Sat
We hope this is found helpful,
Your servant, Balavidya dasa
