Condescending Pride about Jiva Tattva
BY: BAHUSHIRA DAS (ACBSP)
Jan 24, CALIFORNIA, USA (SUN) — Balavidya/Acaryavilasa has truly blessed me with words of condescending rhetoric, projected as arrows thrown my way, even if the words of philosophical content are half-baked. I even get the high point of a poem to top it off. I want to thank him again for thinking of me!
Acaryavilasa is trying to convey that one should have faith in the words of the acaryas spoken as they are, taken in a straightforward manner without giving a secondary meaning. Let's see if he has listened to those words well enough. He is stressing that the word 'Vaikuntha' can refer to the Brahmajyoti or the Causal Ocean. Wow! Now that is a new one. I have never heard any of the members of other Gaudiya branches say that. That is indeed a brilliant speculation, a convenient whitewash of the statements about falling from Vaikuntha. This is a long stretch, but not surprising given that it is coming from Bala-avidya.
This is Bala-avidya's interpretation just to fit what he believes only. He says he reads the Bhaktivedanta Veda-folio, but it appears that as usual, he only catches part of what Srila Prabhupada says. If the crux of his own philosophy is that all statements about falling from Vaikuntha and Goloka refer to falling from the Brahmajyoti and the Causal Ocean, then he must prove it by quoting Srila Prabhupada saying that. No more conjecture on his part about this. If he has faith in Srila Prabhupada, then Prabhupada will direct him to the quote to back up his idea about this. If he believes in Prabhupada's words, then let the pure sound of Prabhupada's words enlighten him. Because Srila Prabhupada says the opposite of what he is selling in the philosophical market place, Prabhupada therefore clarifies on the Vaikuntha and Vaikuntha PLANET issue. He states from the Bhagavatam, 2.3.19 in Los Angeles, June 15, 1972:
"He is fallen already from Vaikuntha PLANET. He is fallen in this material world and he again trying to make progress."
Srila Prabhupada's words are self-evident. Go ahead Bala-avidya, look it up in your Folio. Prabhupada is saying that the jiva fell from the Vaikuntha PLANET directly and he falls into the material world from there. And again the jiva is trying to get his svarupa back and go back home, back to Godhead. Bal-avidya/Acaryavilasa thinks that freewill, if misused in the Vaikuntha planet, would be a defect, therefore the jiva would not misuse his freewill there. But Srila Prabhupada says differently in a conversation after a lecture on Caitanya-caritamrita in San Francisco on February 18, 1967:
Disciple: When the souls that were never conditioned at all…do they also have the independence?
Prabhupada: Yes, but they have not misused.
Disciple: Could they ever misuse it?
Prabhupada: Yes they can misuse it also. That power is there.
Disciple: Well I believe you once said that once a conditioned soul becomes perfected and gets out of the material world and goes to Krsnaloka, there's no possibility of falling back.
Prabhupada: No there is a possibility.
So here Srila Prabhupada is directly saying that a nityamukta jiva can misuse his freewill, his independence. He doesn't say that he'll never misuse it, as Bala-avidya/Acaryavilasa says. Nowhere does Prabhupada say the jiva won't misuse his freewill if living in Vaikuntha planet. Bala-avidya made a slick try to adjust the philosophy about the jiva coming from Vaikuntha and what that means, but Prabhupada's words have nipped his pride. Most jivas that have fallen from Vaikuntha are not here for pastimes with the Lord. They have made a bad choice and are struggling to get back. They misused their freewill as a servant in Vaikuntha. But there is hope for the jiva soul according to Srimad Bhagavatam 11.14.25:
Yathagnina hema malam jahati
Dhatam punah svam bhajate carupam
Atma ca karmanusayam vidhuya
Mad bhakti bhajaty yogena atho mam
"Just as gold, when smelted in fire, gives up its impurities and returns to its pure brilliant state, similarly, the spirit soul, absorbed in the fire of bhakti yoga, is purified of all contamination caused by previous fruitive activities and returns to its original position of serving Me in the spiritual world."
The nityamukta jiva can fall from Vaikuntha planet as Srimad Bhagavatam 2.5.19 directly states:
Karya-karan-kartatve dravya-jnana-kriyasrayah
Badhnanti nityada muktam mayinam purusam gunah
"These three modes of material nature being further manifested as matter, knowledge, and activities, put the eternally transcendental living entity under conditions of cause and effect and made him responsible for such activities."
Purport:
"Because they are between the internal and external potencies, the external transcendental living entities are called the marginal potency of the Lord. Factually, the living entities are not meant to be so conditioned by material energy, but due to their being affected by the false sense of lording it over the material energy, they come under the influence of such potency, and thus become conditioned by the three modes of material nature. This external energy of the Lord covers up the pure knowledge of the living entity's eternally existing with Him, but the covering is so constant that it appears that the conditioned soul is eternally ignorant."
Prabhupada is saying the nitya-muktas (eternal transcendental living entities) who are in the Vaikuntha planet are put into maya due to freewill and then have to suffer. Nityada muktam mayinam. So Bhagavatam, which is the cream of all the Puranas and Upanishads, is explaining Vedanta Sutra's most inner secrets, is saying that the nitya mukta jivas can fall down from Vaikuntha planet even though they are not meant to. But due to their freewill they can. In an article by Srila Prabhupada in Sri Bhagavat Patrika in 1959, he writes:
"Similarly, if from the Supreme eternal pastimes (Nitya-lila) no souls would turn themselves from it, then the creation of the Mayaic world would also be put off forever."
The verse mentions the nitya-lila. Nitya-lila in the Vaikuntha planets and Goloka, not in the material prison of this karmic world nor the Brahmajyoti or the Causal Ocean. So the living entity (jiva) leaves the Nitya-lila pastimes of the Lord. Bala-avidya is saying that when the jiva soul rejected the service of Krsna, that it is done from the Causal Ocean. Even a new bhakta understands that a jiva in the Causal Ocean or the Brahmajyoti is in an inactive role, but the jiva is conscious. Actually, in the Casual Ocean the jiva is in susupti ("exactly deep sleep without dream or anesthetized state therefore they do not remember being with Krsna") Prabhupada's letter to Jagadisha in Los Angeles on April 2, 1970).
When one is in the Brahmajyoti light, action is limited. Service means reciprocation with the Lord. There is no reciprocation in the Brahmajyoti or the Causal Ocean so where is the question of service being performed? There is no service there.
Actually, the Brahmajyoti is described as hell by the Vaisnavas, Naraka Kaivalyate. Gopa Kumar in the Brhad-Bhagavatamritam also describes the Brahmajyoti as hellish because there is no service there for the devotee. Prabhupada has described the Brahmajyoti as a fallen position. The jiva falls down from a higher position, where there is service to be performed, and a location to perform the duties of service. So this is what Bala-avidya/Acaryavilasa describes as part of Vaikuntha? A place where there is ignorance (susupti-dreaming) in the Casual Ocean? Vaikuntha is free of these anarthas. Another misconception of an unrealized half-truth is that the tatastha jivas are only in the Casual Ocean or the Brahmajyoti.
Neo-Gaudiyas, like Acaryavilasa, think that the tatastha shakti jivas are originally situated in the Brahmajyoti and the Casual Ocean and nowhere else. They also think that tatastha shakti jivas are only conditioned souls, So can Acaryavilasa give a quote, and not just conjecture, that states that the tatastha jivas are only conditioned souls, and only in the material world? No he can't.
In Mahaprabhura Siksa: the Teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, he explains the tatastha jivas are everywhere.
Nitya-bhagavat-parikara rupo garudadikah
Asya ca tatasthatvam jivatvaprasiddher
"They are the eternal associates of the Lord, such as Garuda. They are not in the category of the Lord, as in shown by the scriptures. They are still tatastha or jiva."
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur is quoting Srila Jiva Goswami from the Paramatma Sandarbha about this point. Jiva Goswami says:
Vidga amsah svamsa vibhinnamsac ca vibhinnamasas
tatastha-cakty-atmaka jiva iti vaksyate
"The Supreme Personality of Godhead has two kinds of expansions: 1. svamsa (personal expansions), and 2. vibhinnamasa (separated expansions). The Lord's separated expansions are the individual spirit souls, who are all the Lord's marginal potency (tatastha-sakti)."
Tad evam ananta eva jivakhyas tatastha caktayah
"Thus the Lord's marginal (tatastha) potencies, who are called the individual spirit souls are limitless in number."
Jiva Goswami continues:
tatra - there; prathamah - antaragga-sakti - internal potency; vilasa -
pastimes; anugrhtitah - attained the mercy; nitya – eternal; bhagavat - of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead; parikara-rupah - the form of associates;
garodadikah - beginning with Garuda; yatha - as; uktam - said; padmottarakhande
- in the Padma Purana, Uttara-khanda; tripad-vibhuten - of three
fourths of the Lord's potencies; lokah - the world; tu - indeed; iti - thus; adau -
beginning; bhagavat-sandarbhodahrte - described in the Bhagavat-sandarbha;
asya - of this; ca - also; tatasthatvam - the state of being the marginal potency;
jivatvaprasiddheh - of the proof of bein the individual spirit souls; isvaratva -
of the status of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; Kotau - on the edge;
apravecat - because of not entering.
"The first group consists of Garuda and the other eternal associates of the Lord,
These devotees take shelter of the Lord's internal potency and enjoy pastimes with Him. They reside in the spiritual world, which will be described Bhagavat-sandarbha (anuccheda 78) where the following words of Padma Purana, Uttara-khanda are quoted: "Countless blissful spiritual planets are in the spiritual sky, which is three fourths of the entire creation." Thus, although of the individual souls is on the borderline of the nature of the. Supreme Personality of Godhead, the individual souls do not enter that divine nature. Therefore they remain different from the Lord."
So herein we see that Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur is quoting Sri Jiva Goswami, and they are both Acaryas who are making the deep philosophical points that tatastha shakti jivas are of the Lord's internal potency (the favorable ones) and the unfavorable ones. Vishnu Purana also states the same thing, that the ksetrajna, living entities, are of the Lord's internal potency. This means that because the Lord's internal potency is everywhere, the jivas who are of the Lord's internal potency are everywhere.
Jiva Goswani says in Mahaprabhura Siksa: the Teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu by Bhaktivinoda Thakura:
"The number of jivas is unlimited. They are divided into two classes ... The
favorable jivas are all recipients of the Lord's splendid internal energy
[hladini shakti.]. They are the eternal associates of the Lord, such as
Garuda. They are not in the category of the Lord, as is shown by the
scriptures. [Tatasthatvam jivatva-prasidder] They are still tatastha or jiva.
The second class of jivas is devoid of the help of the intemal energy as
they are averse to the Lord. Because of this lack, they are overwhelmed by
maya and take repeated birth in the material world."
Here Sri Jiva is stating that Garuda is tatastha, or a marginal jiva. Interesting isn't it, Acaryavilasa? And that includes the other eternal jiva associates. When it says that the second class of jivas are devoid of the help of the internal energy that does not mean that they never had it, but it became adulterated or covered. Srila Prabhupada states that in Caitanya-caritamrita, Adi Lila, Ch. 4, Verse 68:
"But when the same hladini shakti is adulterated by the external material energy and emanates from the living being, it does not attract Krsna."
The second quote by Sri Jiva is vibbinnamsas tatastha-cakty-atmaka jiva; "The
Lord's separated expansions are the individual spirit souls, who are all the Lord's
marginal potency (tatastha-shakti)." Here it doesn't say that only the jivas in the Casual Ocean are the Lord's marginal potency but all individual spirit souls are the Lord's marginal potency.
The third quote by Jiva Goswami is jivakhyas tatasthab caktayah: "Thus the)
Lord's marginal [tatastha] potencies. who are called the individual spirit souls are
limitless in number."
The fourth quote by Sri Jiva Goswami, tatasthakhya saktir: "In this way we have described the Lord's marginal potency." Here it is stated that all jivas created by the Lord (A-Z) are tatastha sakti jivas. That implies that the jiva has the ability to fall down from anywhere. The free will is the key point, not the place. The jiva can be anywhere, in any planet in the marginal position. Can Sri Acaryavilasa show one quote where Prabhupada says the Casual Ocean is the marginal position? Again, marginal is a quality of the jiva, not just a place. This is not my opinion, it the opinion of the acaryas and sastras.
Obviously, Acaryavilasa is not clear about all the statements of Jiva Goswami and Srila Prabhupada. He is indeed following the marginal view of the Neo-Gaudiyas. They are thinking that the Causal Ocean is the only place of origin of the tatastha-sbakti-jivas. That is where they deviated from Jiva Goswami's and Srila Prabhupada's statements. They replaced the statements about the quality or characteristic of the jiva with a place in space (Casual Ocean). But in fact, the jiva resides not only in the Causal Ocean, but everywhere. On top of that the jiva has qualities which are next to the Lord. That is why Srila Prabhupada makes the "so-called" controversial statements about the fall of the jiva that they cannot comprehend. The Neo-Gaudiyas must have surely wondered why Prabhupada would say that the soul fell from Vaikuntha planet if it wasn't in sastra, as they thought. One can read the whole article here: Tatastha Shakti Jivas are Everywhere".
Can Bala-avidya/Acaryavilasa give us one quote from a lecture, book, or tape of Srila Prabhupada that says that the Brahmajyoti and the Casual Ocean are Vaikuntha? I'll be waiting for his answer. Not just me, remember, thousands want to hear his answer to this question. Just one quote will do. Time is ticking. Happy research!
