Falling From the Spiritual World
BY: ABHAY CARAN DASA
Jul 10, DALLAS, TEXAS (SUN) — As an insignificant aspiring servant to all of you sweet Vaisnavas, please overlook all of my imperfections. The submission of this article is in some effort to give some clarity to this spreading misconception of jivas falling from the spiritual world. Many books have been written about this subject. Srila Sridhar Maharaja used to joke: A thousand times asked, a thousand times answered.
This topic was not only a thousand times discussed, but also a thousand times misunderstood. To understand, or to not understand the Lord, is purely a question of grace. Logical sequences do not necessarily favor us in this or all respects. The speculators have not only said that the jiva falls from Vaikuntha, but they are also claiming that jivas fall from Krsnaloka - that means falling from the personal, direct association with the Supreme Lord; falling from the nitya-siddha position.
All jivas falling from the spiritual into material existence is not supported by the Vedas, the Purana’s nor our Acaryas.
Personally, due to the ambiguity of the interpretation given by many people, even some of my friends, I prefer to take the standpoint of all our Acaryas, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur Prabhupada, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur Prabhupada and many others, in particular our beloved Srila Prabhupada. He said: "If you fell into the ocean and they come to rescue you but first you refuse the help and instead ask: 'First explain to me how I fell into the water", it does not make any sense, so my submission here is not to overshadow the importance that it really doesn’t matter where we came from, but where we are going!
Keeping in mind we are concerned with loving, heart to heart exchanges, to enthuse one another in our devotional lives and services, in no way do I wish to minimize anyone in their service or devotional life, but for nearly 20 years of hearing this misconception I thought as of late, especially hearing it from some leaders preaching this to visitors and new bhakta’s in the last few months visiting different temples, I would like to clarify some points contrary to that.
Some use a few of Srila Prabhupada’s letters as evidence to challenge and support their misconceptions. We see sometimes Srila Prabhupada may have mentioned in a letter to someone that the idea we come from Brahman is rather impersonal. So he said, we do come from Krsna. We read in the Bhagavad Gita and other literature where Srila Prabhupada states, go back to Godhead. We do not come from Brahman, he could see that their interpretation was: If I come from Brahman, then I better go back to Brahman again. They would not take Krsna in consideration as the Supreme generating power
Srila Goura Govinda Goswami Maharaja boldly said that “one cannot always quote from letters. Letters are written according to time, place and circumstance, and according to the qualification of the disciple to whom the letter was written”.
It is a very surprising topic, because the Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, He can do whatever He wants. He is free to do anything, and on top of it, everything He does is good and beneficial. He is the only well-wisher of all living entities. He is not against any single one of us; For Him to exhibit His various pastimes, it takes many different, delightful things to happen, which in the long run gives incredible blessings to the people in this world, particularly to all of us who are surrendering to the truth.
Nobody falls from the spiritual world unless the Lord makes such an arrangement, as in the case of Jaya and Vijaya. To note here in text 32 of chapter 16, 3rd Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, Srila Prabhupada shares with us that the occurrence of the curse from the Kumaras took place at the door/gates to Vaikuntha, he further shares the sages returned to the material world as well after cursing Jaya and Vijaya.
In any past time that we see it arranged by the Lord for devotees to come to the material for his pleasure, Srila Prabhupada’s clearly describes for us the occurrences and circumstances.
" [...]After finishing their mock fighting, both the devotee and the Lord are again associated in the spiritual planets. That is very explicitly explained here. The conclusion is that no one falls from the spiritual world or Vaikuntha planet, for it is the eternal abode. [...]" (Bhag. 3.16.26.
The magazine of Srila Prabhupada is called BACK TO GODHEAD. That means for myself and others in many of our Vaisnava missions around the world, even the effulgence of the Lord belongs to Godhead and here, in Kali yuga, this time we have the chance, by the grace of Srila Prabhupada, Mahaprabhu and Srimati Radhika, to get so much closer to the Lord, and that is a reason to rejoice and to surrender regardless to my points made herein, contrary to the misconception of the jivas fall from Vaikuntha or Goloka.
The jivas come into existence from the “marginal” area of Krishna's energy... Srila Prabhupada tells us in the purport of text 32 of chapter 16 that all other creatures, including the demigods, are born of Brahma, Brahma is born of Vishnu, those who know Vishnu as the origin of everything, who are conversant with the process of creation and who understand that Visnu or Krsna is the most worshippable object of all living entities, engage themselves in Visnu worship as Vaisnavas. The Vedic hymns confirm this: om tad visnoh paramam padam. Nothing impersonal comes from Krishna. Thus every spark of the Brahmajyoti is a jiva with the potential to develop pure love for Radha- Krsna.
Srila Prabhupada’s preaching is so sweet, so wonderful, so very personal. Equally we can see it has its time, place and circumstances.
***"In a 1971 conversation with Revatinandana, Srila Prabhupada said:*
"[...] these questions are not to be discussed in public. They require a much higher understanding. For the public it should be, 'This is matter, this is spirit.' That's all.[...] but we hear it on Sunday feasts, home programs and in articles and forums."
These points are made to discourage misconceptions from being preached to those who do not understand Vaisnava siddhanta properly. But we hear time and time again from the vyasana this misconception being repeated.
In the purport of the verses from the Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 3, chapter 16, verse 27 it clearly states, as it does in verse 29, the inhabitants of Vaikuntha never return to the material world. In Verse 29 Srila Prabhupada mentions three times that a jiva that took birth in the spiritual world cannot fall down again, if not arranged and approved by the Lord himself.
Lord Krsna himself states that once one goes to a Vaikuntha planet, he never returns.
In purport 29, carefully read, we can see Srila Prabhupada says three times within half a page, that a living entity cannot fall from Vaikuntha, will not fall from Vaikuntha, and never falls from Vaikuntha. Even though he says this so clear here, we can see that after his departure interpretations were drawn from a few other indications, completely denying this purport and indirectly declaring that Srila Prabhupada is three times wrong - three times wrong in the same purport, to add Krishna is wrong in the Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam.
Again this idea is not at all backed up by sastra, as our Jagad Guru indicates in many of his lectures, translations and purports, though of course equally Srila Prabhupada states, if Krsna wants any of his associates to go somewhere and to do something on His behalf, He would have the free will to do so. For example in the case of Sridama’s curse from Srimati Radharani, the emotions that are described in this pastime give so much light, though in order that Sridhama would not become bereft of the Lord's association, Krsna blessed him that they might remain together as before when the Lord's earthly pastimes came to pass. Thus Sridhama would be simultaneously present as a demon and a devotee, and, when the demon expansion was slain, his life force would again join with the body of Sridhama.
We cannot say, that Krsna cannot do this, in no way should we come up with a theory and try to substantiate it by wild speculations, which claims that every living entity comes from a personal relationship with Krsna in Vaikuntha or Goloka Vrindavan and fell down to this world due to misbehavior there. If this is the case, there would be plenty of misbehavior and misery in the spiritual world. Just imagine if amongst the cowherd boys, here and there, the one or the other ends up missing. What would his friends think about his disappearance, Oh where is Gopa? Where is Stokakrsna? Then others would say: ”Don't you know what he did yesterday? Krsna told him to get lost.” Their hearts would be crumbled continuously in Goloka Vrindavana. How could you call it the spiritual world?
If somebody from our own line falls down, we are suffering immensely. It is such a painful experience for us all. So we should be amazed what the mind is capable of producing ideas as such, and from senior devotees, from whom this misconception is repeated from the vyasana, discussions and/or letters. We hear it from all angles and all levels.
It may appear here and there that Srila Prabhupada contradicts his own teachings as presented in his books, in some of these letters or lectures, anyhow this can be easily reconciled if we understand that our Acaryas have sometimes seemingly contradicted or simplified the actual siddhanta for preaching purposes.
Here it is clear and definite!
"[...]It is a fact that no one falls from Vaikuntha.[...]" (Bhag. 7.1.35,
“[...]The nitya-siddha devotees never fall down to the region of the material atmosphere even though they sometimes come into the material plane to execute the mission of the Lord. [...]" (Bhag. 3.3.26,)
"[...] a devotee in the transcendental abode of the Lord never falls.[...]" (Bhag. 3.15.48,)
Lastly, not least the fall, the return, the relationships and all the behavior is covered by a certain veil. By the sweet will of the Supreme we are covered by a certain uncertainty which devotees have penetrated here and there with their tikas by saying things like: there was some apathy towards service; there was some indifference towards the Lord, there was some desire to control nature; there was a misuse of free will. And recently I heard again that due to our envy and jealousy towards the Lord whilst in relationship directly with the Lord Himself is the cause of our fall from Goloka. In relationship with the Lord directly that anyone would ever make such a decision to leave His association for one moment, unless by His sweet will and/or order, sounds so outlandish.
We argue in one way or another, this is kind of reasonable because you see that we can be good or not according to our capricious decisions. It is reasonable that this capacity caused us at some point to go the wrong way, unfortunately not isolated with this topic alone.
So the veil is there, meaning you cannot see everything as clear as without the veil. The veil which is covering the relationship is a very sensible veil. There is a reason for that, because without that veil, there would be no question of free will. If everything would be crystal clear, our material existence would be crystal clear and we would not have any choices to go on with our pleasure seeking mentality. It is very sad actually, people want the Vedas and Krsna to give things which Krsna prefers not to give, and due to that, souls make concoctions, or even worse, we reject them all together. But it is not our right. We are simply meant to accept the guidance from the pure devotees, like Srila Prabhupada, who in a short purport emphatically says that nobody falls from Vaikuntha. Then we may speculate: Oh, he means Vaikuntha, but from Goloka, yes we fall.
Goloka is part of Vaikuntha, not only that, it is the topmost part of Vaikuntha. Those who cannot see that, cannot recognize that, well perhaps they are preferring the relationship in awe and reverence, like the aisvarya relationship with the Supreme Lord, thus they do not pay special attention to the Lord. “Who can do away with the sweetness”?
So, in particular verses, Srila Prabhupada and Sri Krishna make it so clear that we will not fall down when we reach Lord Krsna's abode. That means nobody who has been there before fell down either, without the arrangement of the Lord directly. That is a logical sequence, is it not? But we did come from somewhere, and we did come from the Lord, because we did not invent ourselves. So there is an eternal agency of eternal soul production, if you will, so at some point we all get the chance to go there or to come here. It is behind that veil, because if we would remove that veil or the veil did not exist no one could be in maya for one second, because the crystal clear confrontation with the truth would make it impossible to go against the truth. So there would be no freedom. We would just be fabricated to fit into a single unit, which means involuntary submission, and then everybody in the spiritual world would be naturally submissive, a devotee without any option. That is too much robotic like, it is too much like zombies, it is too mechanical and manipulated. What kind of loving relationship is there when we are forced into it? So we can see with clarity Krsna has not done it in that way.
Everything He does is good. He does nothing wrong. We do, He does not!
For some, this will be an interpretation that these words, this conclusion is taken out of someone's mind and there will be those who reject, stubbornly stick with their misconception. All of this is described for us to understand correctly: antaranga-, bahiranga-, tatastha-sakti; and the light, the brahmajyoti, the effulgence coming from the Lord in the form of sparks, which are each and everyone part of His infinite energy, with the potential individual development, igniting in the soul is the chance to come into a personal encounter with the origin of its existence by the grace and sweet will of the Lord, That is Krsna, the beloved of all souls, through Guru Tattva, Srila Prabhupada's Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s, Srimati Radharani’s special mercy. Therein is our opportunity.
Thank you very much Srila Prabhupada, and to all of our guardians for giving such clarity on this topic.
With much love and affection to all of you,
Your eternally aspiring servant,
Abhay Caran Dasa
Dallas, Texas
WVA-VVRS North American Secretary
