To Protect the Name and Legacy of Srila Prabhupada
BY: ACARYAVILASA DASA
Mar 04, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (SUN) — In his recent posting, Not Important, Shambhu dasa kindly gives a pertinent quote from Srila Prabhupada:
Srimad Bhagavatam class, Seattle, Washington on September 30, 1968:
"Don't worry how you fell down, that is not important."
Certainly devotees should not bring worry into their spiritual lives. And once the siddhanta on this point is understood, one can then meditate in bliss upon that perfect place of eternal perfection, the Supreme Abode of Sri Krsna, known as Goloka-Vrndavana, where every word is a song and every step a dance. So we do not want worry, yet we do want the correct siddhanta to inspire us. And certainly Srila Prabhupada did clarify this point of siddhanta in many places in his books, lectures and conversations. However, there is a small but determined group of Goloka-Envy-Fallvadis (GEFs) that argue time and time again against Srila Prabhupada's conclusion:
Srila Prabhupada's Conclusion:
Purport, Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.16.26:
"The conclusion is that no one falls from the spiritual world, or Vaikuntha planet, for it is the eternal abode."
Not only is this the conclusion of Srila Prabhupada, but all acaryas of Sat-Gaudiya-Siddhanta, of course. We are most fortunate to have the writings of Srila Thakur Bhaktivinoda and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada to clearly corroborate the perfection of Srila Prabhupada's conclusion. However this means nothing to the GEFs; they are determined to separate Srila Prabhupada from the Vaisnava conclusion clearly given in the Sri Brahma Samhita, the Brhat-aranyaka Upanisad, and Srila Prabhupada's Srimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita. The GEFs wish to establish a new conception in the name of Srila Prabhupada, in effect saying that Srila Prabhupada differed from all previous acaryas and the sublime authority of the Vedas. This new philosophy they designate as "Prabhupada Siddhanta", and they are not embarrassed to misinterpret any words of Srila Prabhupada against the Vedas in their misplaced zeal to establish their deviant apasiddhanta. Faced with such concoction in the name of Srila Prabhupada, many devotees feel compelled to protect the name and legacy of Srila Prabhupada and restate the perfect conclusion of Srila Prabhupada.
Two Points of Siddhanta
The discussion revolves around two points of Vaisnava Siddhanta:
(1) The Initial Fall of the Jiva into material conditioning.
The Sri Brahma Samhita and Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad expound that the jiva is created by Sri Maha Visnu in the margin of matter and spirit known as the Causal Ocean. Some souls by their own free will then engage in service in the transcendental planets of Sri Krsna and some souls, also by their own free will, rebel against the supremacy of Sri Krsna and thus fall to the material universes and the cycle of mundane birth and death. See Appendix One for the Vedas on this point.
However in stark contrast, the GEFs ignore the Vedas and on the basis of strained misinterpretation of selected quotes from Srila Prabhupada, assert that the jiva established in the highest levels of krsna-prema in a direct relationship with Sri Krsna and His Goloka lila become envious of Sri Krsna in that perfect abode and thus fall to the material conditioning of the material universes. Recently some GEFS have added a bizarre caveat: the jiva doesn't fall to the material world but "falls asleep on a bed in Goloka and dreams he is in the material world", sometimes adding that the jiva is partially in Goloka and partially in the material world – it is not clear which parts are here or there. So with this newly evolving concoction, the GEFs are the source of the contention and worry.
(2) Whether Jivas after attaining Goloka-Vrndavana will fall again to the material world.
Sri Krsna is crystal clear in Bhagavad-gita in many verses that once one attains Goloka-Vrndavana, then one will never fall again to the material world, though of course for the transcendental lila of Sri Krsna, many liberated souls may leave Goloka in service to the Supreme Lord. Srila Prabhupada concurs unequivocally in his purports. See Appendix Two for just some of the verses on this point. However the GEFs argue against this irrefutable conclusion and assert by the same tactics of selective misinterpretation that, having initially fell from Goloka, the jiva is liable to fall again. Strangely the GEFs are completely silent on falldown from the planets of Sri Narayana; one would expect that if, according to GEF apasiddhanta, souls are falling from Goloka in the highest mellows, then they should also be falling from the planets of Sri Narayana wherein the less intimate mood of devotion in awe and reference is predominant. Hopefully the GEFs will not give us further concern by applying their unbounded speculative abilities to this point.
Concluding Words
So the discussion on these points may be seen as valid for eight reasons:
(a) Srila Prabhupada did answer these points in detail, and so discussion of his siddhanta is perfectly valid, leading to a deeper realization.
(b) The siddhanta given by Srila Prabhupada should not be altered, especially when the false alteration would put Srila Prabhupada at odds with the Vedas, the Supreme Authority.
(c) The status of Srila Prabhupada as the perfect expounder of Vaisnava Siddhanta should be protected.
(d) The eternal perfection of the Supreme Abode and the eternal perfection of Sri Krsna and His liberated devotees should not be publicly maligned, but rather properly understood and presented before the sincere devotees for their inspiration and eternal contemplation.
(e) So that neophyte aspirants to devotional service are not misled with apasiddhanta.
(f) To establish the principle that Sri Krsna and the Vedas are the Highest Authority and that the words of Srila Prabhupda should never be twisted against the irrefutable clear conclusions that Sri Krsna and the Vedas present.
(g) So that the dangers of motivated mental speculation and misinterpretation and those persons attached to such deviance should be exposed.
(h) So that the Goloka-Envy-Fallvadis might be saved from their disservice to the Eternal Vaisnava Siddhanta and Srila Prabhupada and come to understand the error of their ways.
Appendix One: The Initial Fall of the Jiva
Sri Brahma Samhita, 5.11:
sahasra-sirsa purusah
sahasraksah sahasra-pat
sahasra-bahur visvatma
sahasramsah sahasra-suh
"The Lord of the mundane world, Maha-Visnu, possesses thousands of thousands of heads, eyes, and hands. He is the source of thousands of thousands of avataras in His thousands of thousands of subjective portions. He is the creator of thousands of thousands of individual souls."
Comment: Sri Maha Visnu, situated within the Causal Ocean is "the creator of thousands of thousands of individual souls." So Sri Maha Visnu creates souls and in the tata or margin between the material and spiritual realms these tatastha-shakti-jivas choose devotion or rebellion in the spiritual and material realms respectively as explained in the following Upanisad:
In the Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad, 4.3.9, we find a description of the jiva situated in the Causal Ocean:
tasya va etasya purunasya dve eva sthane bhavata
idam ca paraloka-sthanam ca sandhyam trtiyam
svapna-sthanam tasmin sandhye sthane tinthan 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."
The Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad, 4.3.18, further describes the nature of the marginal position of the jiva and the choice with which he is presented initially:
tad yatha maha matsya ubhe kule'
nusancarati purvam ca param caivam
evayam purusa etav 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."
Appendix Two: No Fall upon Attainment of Vaikuntha Planets
Bhagavad-gita 8.21:
paras tasmat tu bhavo 'nyo
'vyakto 'vyaktat sanatanah
yah sa sarvesu bhutesu
nasyatsu na vinasyati
"That which the Vedantists describe as unmanifest and infallible, that which is known as the supreme destination that place from which having attained it, one never returns—that is My supreme abode."
Purport of Srila Prabhupada:
"When one attains to it [the Supreme Abode], he [the soul] never returns to the material world."
Purport Srila Prabhupada Bhagavad-gita 8.22:
"It is here clearly stated that the supreme destination, from which there is no return, is the abode of Krsna, the Supreme Person."
Bhagavad-gita 8.15:
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."
Bhagavad-gita 8.16:
a-brahma-bhuvanal lokah
punar avartino 'rjuna
mam upetya tu kaunteya
punar janma na vidyate
"From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kunti, never takes birth again."
Comment: Sri Krsna and the Vedas are the Highest Authority and the words of the spiritual master should never be twisted against the clear conclusions that Sri Krsna and the Vedas present as above. That is the Mad-Elephant Offense.
Aum Tat Sat
