"We fall from Srimati Radharani originally", not from Sri Maha-Visnu
BY: PATITA PAVANA DAS
May 23, 2010 — USA (SUN) — "Sri Radhika is the Source of all individual souls whose function is to be employed in the service of Sri Krsna by the alternative methods [of] loyal conscious submission, neutrality or actual opposition. The individual souls serve Sri Krsna as constituents of Sri Radhika. When they forget that they are constituents of Sri Radhika they forget the nature of their own selves, and engage in the abnormal activities of the mundane plane."
So says Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur in Sri Caitanya's Teaching p. 615 (quoted also in "Our Original Position" p. 138). In this revealing passage, we learn that the original position of the soul is to serve Krsna as a constituent of Sri Radhika. The 3 alternative methods means the different positions or roles servants take in the pastimes or lila's of the Lord. Only when they forget this do they "engage in the abnormal activities of the mundane plane."
As we wrote earlier in the essay, "Fall-vada in the Mahabharata and the Puranas", on the way down from Goloka the falling soul gets another chance at the border between matter and spirit. Srila Prabhupada writes that the falling soul gets a warning of protection.
Kaka-vada
The erroneous kaka-vada (karanabdhisaya Visnu
karana-samudra patita-vada ) vada = theory of falling from Karanabdhisaya Visnu or Maha-Visnu in the causal ocean or karana-samudra, or the soul originally falling down from Maha-Visnu in the causal ocean teaches that the soul emanates from Lord Sri Maha-Visnu after a beginningless, dreamless sleep or susupti. While flying out from Maha-Visnu, the soul sees for the first time the material and the spiritual world. To have a fair choice the soul should be fully Krishna conscious and see the whole of the spiritual and material worlds.
If the soul would not be fully enlightened, but dozy after the anadi-susupti and make the wrong choice - for the hell of the material world for many mahakalpas (lifetimes of Brahma, one life and in-between period to the next Brahma is 622 trillion 80
billion years), that wouldn't be righteous. The soul should at that moment clearly see the Supreme Enjoyer and Controller with all His servants and decide not to surrender and be envious based on perfect knowledge.
Seeing the Lord and the spiritual world is on the absolute platform and non-different from
being there. So all the souls in the material world have fallen down from the spiritual
world. Just as sat-vada teaches (vada is philosophy. Sat - Soul Always Tatastha, that the soul is always tatastha, or marginal; the soul can fall from the spiritual world). If the soul can fall at the beginning of his life to the material world it can do that again, Srila Prabhupada explains, just as a criminal can go again to the jail after being released from it.
Kaka-vada is also wrong because why would the Lord lay down souls in empty sleep forever. He is lilamaya, anandamaya'bhyasat. He wants everyone in His pastimes always.
We already wrote Acarya vilasa dasa that the quote from Brahma Samhita 5.11 is wrongly translated. Maha-Visnu creates 1000's , sahasra-suh universes. The word sahara-suh is wrongly broken up. Sahasra asuh or prana would be souls. Here is the correct translation for further use:
sahasra-sirsa purusah sahasraksah sahasra-pat
sahasra-bahur vivvatma sahasramsah sahasra-suh
"This form of Maha-visnu, the soul of the universe, creates countless universes. Because he has countless avatara forms within the universes, he is said to have countless heads, countless eyes, countless feet and countless arms."
Sat-vada
So the question on a real life example of fall down becomes easily answered. Whether you choose for kaka-vada or sat-vada, the soul's relation with Krishna is eternal : nitya siddha Krishna prema sadhya kabu naya sravanadi-suddha-citte karaye udaya (Caitanya-caritamrta 2.22.107) -- every soul has been with Krishna in his or her eternal relationship (svarupa).
All the sadhana and krpa siddhas had their nitya svarupa with the Lord before they came down. Knowing their eternal relation with Lord Sri Krishna after perfecting their sadhana or after the krpa they received, we can know from which position they descended. Both are the same. Thus in Garga samhita 1.4.16 there is a description of gopis who have fallen down and are back again.
"Some of the gopis-to-be had been personified Vedas, some great sages- for example the sages in the Dandakaranya forest who fell in love with Lord Ramacandra, some women in mithila, some women in Kosala, some women in Ayodhya, some yajna-sitas ( see Srimad Bhagavatam 10.23), and some pulinda girls".
And in Bhakti rasamrta sindhu 2.1.289 some krpa-siddha's: krpa-siddha yajna-patni-vairocani-sukadayah - "Those who attained perfection by mercy are
Sukadeva, the wives of the brahmanas (became gopi's again)and Bali,
the son of Virocana."
Another example is in the Brhad Bhagavatamrta 2.4.81-87 . When the gopa, Svarupa or Gopa kumara, came back in the spiritual world, Lord Narayana says to him:
"For so long I have been eager to see you… hope had Me dancing like a fool, thinking "perhaps in this lifetime, or this, or this, or this… "
On this Srila Sanatana Gosvami comments:
"The Lord had been waiting a long time for Gopa Kumara to come back to Vaikuntha. The gopa had forgotten the Lord for many life times".
This also refutes the anadi-patita vada, the philosophy that some souls are since time eternal, without beginning, in the material world and all the other souls are eternally in the spiritual world. These eternally liberated souls will never fall. According to that idea the soul in the material world has been nowhere else ever, can get liberated and then will never return here. The souls are in the material world for no reason. All the souls could be in ecstatic love in the spiritual world, but somehow matter is there eternally and needs some residents.
But Srila Sanatana Gosvami says: "the gopa had forgotten the Lord". That means he knew the Lord from before, from the spiritual world, because Srila Sanatana Gosvami comments: "in previous [material] lives Gopa Kumara had never chanted the names of the Lord, not even namabhasa" for which the Lord could have given him a birth near
Govardhana.
But, one may counter, when Gopa Kumara comes to Krishna loka he is called "nutna" , newcomer. This is because Krishna loka is the place of the Lord's nara-lila or human like pastimes. For example, Krishna again and again goes to Mathura to kill Kamsa etc., but this is forgotten again and again. The Brihad Bhagavatamrta 2.6.356/357/361 and commentary describes:
"Krsna subdues Kaliya time and again, in the same way, and time and again lifts
Govardhana Hill. And again and yet again He performs His many other wonderful
pastimes. Thus the Lord enchants the hearts of His devotees.
COMMENTARY: Since all of Krsna's pastimes, beginning with the killing of Putana, are eternal, Krsna enjoys them with His devotees in Goloka as often as they like. Yet each time a pastime is repeated, it seems completely new, as if never seen or heard of before.
But the residents of Vraja, completely bewildered by the kalakuta poison of their supreme love for Sri Krsna, never think that any of these events has ever occurred before.
COMMENTARY: Because the Vraja-vasis are never aware that Krsna's pastimes are repeat performances, the attraction they feel for those pastimes is never impeded. The highest states of krsnaprema have the power to create such bewilderment.
And, oh, the most glorious thing is that the foremost of enlightened persons, the Lord Himself, while drowning in an ocean of love for His dear devotees, cannot always remember what He has done and what He is going to do.
COMMENTARY: Isn't perfect knowledge an automatic byproduct of love of God? Why then are the pure devotees of Goloka so forgetful? Yes, to one who has prema omniscience comes naturally, but prema, being all-powerful, can redefine what is knowledge and what is ignorance.
The Personality of Godhead Himself, by the influence of His Yogamaya, also forgets what He did before. But though He often forgets, He sometimes remembers, if it serves the purpose of His pastimes."
