Fall-vada in the Mahabharata and the Puranas
BY: PATITA PAVANA DAS
Apr 02, USA (SUN) — Acaryavilasa dasa, in his article on Non-fall-vada, "Calling All Goloka-Envy-Fallvadis!", is requesting quotes from Sruti and Smrti to prove fall-vada. The following statements on the fall of the jiva are only a few taken from the Mahabharata, translated by Ganguli, and the Puranas done by a board of scholars, edited by J.L Shastri and published by Motilal.
Mahabharata
Santi-parva CCCVII
"When the soul beholds the Supreme and knowledge dawns upon him, he laments: "alas how foolishly I have acted by falling through ignorance into this frame composed of prakrti like a fish entangled in a net... fie on me that through ignorance, I have been repeatedly migrating from body to body in forgetfulness.
The supreme soul alone is my friend. Being really stainless. I have capacity for friendship with Him. I am competent to be like Him and to attain an identity with Him. I see my similarity with Him. I am indeed like Him. He is pure. It is evident that I am of the same nature. Through ignorance and stupefaction I have become associated with inanimate prakrti. Though really without attachments I have passed this long time in a state of attachment with prakrti. By her I was so long subdued without having been able to know it.
...having passed so long a time with her...The responsibility is mine, since turning away from the Supreme Soul I became of my own accord attached to her. What diverse acts of an evil nature have been committed by me so in these orders I took birth while I remained in them with a soul that lost all knowledge...... when jiva succeeds in understanding prakrti, himself and the Supreme Soul he is said to be restored to his true nature."
To forget means: to lose the remembrance of; to cease remembering or noticing.
".. turning away from the Supreme Soul..." means I was face to face, and then turned away.
"....foolishly I have acted by falling......" means I was in a pure state somewhere up, then I descended down into matter
"...long time.. passed so long a time with her...." means I was not anadir, eternally in maya.
"....The responsibility is mine..." means that I did it, not that I am here " eternally, without cause or purpose", not that there is no one in control of my existence here.
Santi-parva CCXIII
"…invested in His maya, men fall away from knowledge and become senseless and in consequence of their knowledge being darkened, yield to wrath, desire, pride, selfishness and birth and death."
"fallen" means descending, to from the pure spiritual world
Santi-parva CCLXXIX
"…the soul cannot revert to his immutable spiritual state or to the immutable Lord by acts of piety. He should dispel by means of knowledge, the darkness that invest him in consequence of ignorance."
"Revert" or "regain" means one had God-consciousness before falling in the material world.
Santi-parva CCCIII
"...the soul becomes united with prakrti and invested with ignorance uniting with the attributes or virtues of sattva, rajas and tamah in consequence of his forgetfulness and pairing with and assisted by ignorance. The akshara becomes transformed into kshara" (=fallible destructible)
"Once I knew You, now I lost You". To forget means: to lose the remembrance of; to cease remembering or noticing.
Santi-parva CCCIV
Padma purana
4.3
"Once, a rat came to eat the ghee of a lamp offered before Krsna, in the Damodara (Kartika) month. It started eating and moved up the ghee. The lamp started to burn more brightly. Out of fear it ran away; had revived the lamp in front of Krishna and so crores of its sins of previous existence perished. It went from the ocean of mundane existence for hundred ages of Manus to the world of cows, Goloka, in Krishna's proximity, in the highest heaven of Visnu. It is eternal, endless, the highest position, pure, full of sattva, Brahman's place. It has the luster equal to that of many crores of suns. It is the ocean of love, the abode of Visnu dressed as a cowherd.
After some time she became a princess on the earth planet, making the whole kingdom lighting ghee lamps for Krsna in kartika. After that life she again went back to the spiritual abode."
7.120.150
"One who devoutly gives the gift of a book gets the fruit of giving a crore of tawny cows for every letter that is there on every leaf of the book. The giver of a book will live in Vaikuntha for as many periods of Manu as many days the twice-born reads that book. Then he will be born in a brahmana family on earth."
"…one who is doing this tapasya he goes to the highest position from which return is difficult, rebirth is not easy."
Difficult to return means one can go back, and still again fall down from the spiritual world. We found about 20 such statements in the Puranas.
2.22.25
"Suvrata: O Krsna, O Lord Murari, always sprinkle me with the water of knowledge, me – who have fallen in the great ditch covered with fearful darkness called Samsara."
2.125.4
"In Treta Yuga men listened to the Padma purana and enjoying the fruit of the four goals of life, Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha they would again reach Visnu."
7.1.278.40
"...the soul is naturally free from impurities as in the case of the Supreme soul. It takes up aberration, after coming into contact with some upadhi (delimiting condition) as in the case of crystal assuming the color of an object placed nearby."
"One who recites Visnu's name is adored in Visnuloka for the number of years equivalent to the number of names of the Lord recited by him."
Visnu's world is not temporary as the planet of the demigods. Later on we read: "2.4.1 Goloka, the Heaven of Visnu, the world of salvation, is beyond the darkness of maya, it is eternal, beyond all miseries".
Srimad Bhagavatam 8.5.5 purport states that: "Lord Brahma saw Vaikuntha before the creation of the universe. Viraraghava Acarya mentions that this Vaikuntha is within the universe. It is situated above the mountain known as Lokaloka. This planet is worshiped by everyone".
Just as the living entity can fall down from the transcendental abode of Vaikuntha within this material world although Visnu Himself is there with liberated sages and devotees, similarly one can fall down from the transcendental abode of Visnu or Krishna in the spiritual world.
If one goes to Visnuloka situated within the Mahat tattva:
1) One can come back again to the material planets. One will take birth at or close to a holy place of Vishnu or Krishna in this earthly planet from where he will go back to either Vaikuntha or Goloka Vrindavana beyond the mahat-tattva or he goes to Krishnaloka or Visnuloka within the mahat tattva and stays eternally in this spiritual world.
2) One can go from the Visnuloka within this mahat-tattva to the Visnuloka of the spiritual world beyond the mahat-tattva.
3) One may go to the universe where Krishna or Narayana has incarnated or descended for some time. One joins Krishna eternally in His traveling through the universes
Brahma Vaivarta Purana
Krishna kanda
Chapter 5. "O Best of the devas as I was born in the mortal world so let me be born again of divine form on account of my being born again of you. You have created me virtuous and truthful.
The fact that I, who am free from aberrations, have been deceived by maya, which is an aberration, is not its fault. It is my fault for I had been attached to it and I had been approached by it with face turned away, originally. I have been overwhelmed by my-ness. After splitting Himself into many He joins me once again. The evil quality of my-ness is always generated in the atma as long as he is under the modes of material nature. After abandoning this which has clung to me I shall resort to the state, free from ailment."
"4.2 When one thief who was a great sinner came before Yamaraja, Citragupta, his minister of justice said: "he committed all the sins the Creator created on earth. Once when desiring to steal, he entered the temple and walking around there with his dirty feet full of mud he filled up the slope, holes and pits of the ground. He saluted the murtis of Radha Krsna sleeping on a bed and thereby he became free from all sins. Standing before the Deities he thought "shall I steal or not?'' He decided yes, thinking: ''I am by nature always a thief, I cannot serve the Lord, let me steal".
While stealing, due to Krsna's maya (=magic) and his trembling hands, with great loud noise, the jewels etc. fell on the floor. Hearing this, the guards of the temple nearly caught him, but although he escaped, he was bitten by cobra and died. After this he attained Visnu's excellent abode and lived there for as many 1000's of kalpas as the many dust/mud particles that had fallen down from his feet (repairing thus the ground-floor of the temple).Then he was born on this earth planet again."
Vayu Purana
63.20
"One who presents a book of the Veda, remains and enjoys in the region of Visnu for so many years as the number of letters in the book."
Narada Purana/Utt.bh.
53.18
(chapter 53 has the prayers of King Indradyumna of Purusottama ksetra)
"O Varaha, just as the earth that was formerly sunk into the waters had been lifted up from the nether-worlds, so also you reserve me from the ocean of misery. I have fallen into the extremely fierce and terrible ocean of worldly existence."
The earth fell from its proper, right position down, so the soul fell down into the maya…..from an above, out of maya, natural, right state.
"O Lord, I am temporarily of the universe, sometimes in human worlds and sometimes in animal kingdom. Just as someone in the mechanical device for lifting water falls up and down or remains in the middle. Thus in this wheel of worldly existence I have been whirling for a long time."
2.5.13
"One who devotedly reads the purana shall stay in My presence for as many yugas as the number of verses read. At that place, there is a splendid city with charming mansions. Different kinds of grand buildings of various colours and sizes shine therein, palaces with golden pinnacles embellished with gems. The holy, cosmic-formed king, the sole leader of the universe stays there in the splendid divine palace embellished with gems. Vaikuntha is a place devoid of the six infirmities of human beings: grief, delusion, hunger, thirst, old age and death."
2.7.16.8
"(Srutadeva to Sri Bhagavan, Narayana) I am fettered by the noose of the deadly black serpent called wordly existence...I wander from one species of beings to another because I have forgotten Your feet."
3.1.49.40
"I have fallen into the ocean of worldly existence which has birth and death for its waters. It is covered with fearful darkness. It (Samsara) has surging waves in the form of sons, wives, wealth and fields. It is the ocean (of Samsara) in which the entire Cosmic Egg is immersed. I am frightened of the sharks of sensuous objects. I am afflicted by the crocodiles of diseases. I am agonized by the fishes in the form of the 3 klesas. Protect me O Lord, obeisance to You."
Skanda Purana
1.1.31.46
"...you are scattered in the ocean of worldly existence. You are fallen in a mirage and you are fascinated and subdued by maya. This extremely terrible world that causes the hairs to stand on end and strikes terror to the heart."
2.2.15.37
"Indradyumna maharaja "O lotus-eyed Lord, I have fallen into the ocean of worldly existence. May there be no bondage of physical bodies for me in the prison of worldly existence after attaining You."
Prison means there was a crime and punishment, and existence in the free world, from which the soul fell.
2.2.20.16
"Your maya is like an ocean. My-ness, sense actions are like crocodiles in the middle of the dangerous pits. I have fallen into the ocean....I have abandoned You."
2.2.29.56
"Lord Jagannatha (daru-brahman) to Brahma "By seeing Me here, by worshipping Me and by casting off their body here, all of them are gradually liberated along with you. Again they will attain liberation."
2.2.32.39
"O Lord of devas, I have fallen into the waters of the ocean of worldly existence which has whirlpools of delusion, which is difficult to be crossed on account of the six waves (grief, delusion, death, old age, hunger, thirst) which is terrible with evil actions as crocodiles, in which there is no place of refuge nor any support, which is devoid of intrinsic essence and which has miseries for its foam. Redeem me, O Lord of the devas. I am sunk therein"
