Time Enigma of Krsna
BY: BAHUSHIRA DASA (ACBSP)
Jan 18, CALIFORNIA, USA (SUN) — Well, well, it looks like Balavidya has a new incarnation. His new pen name is Acaryavilasa. I can "smell" him in the way he writes. His new writing is more polished, but I do miss his explosive rhetoric. His paper sounds nice at first, but then the avidya pops up. Let me restate that, I mean the Bala Avidya, the partial knowledge that he always expounds. Acaryavilasa tries to explain material time and spiritual time in relation to the conditioned jiva and his sojourn in the material world, but he is not quoting the Acaryas, so he is not living up to his new pseudonym, 'Acaryavilasa'. So now let us hear some quotes from the Acaryas with our ears and eyes wide open.
"As long as the jivas, by their choice, stay fixed in the service of Krsna they are free of maya and karma, but when, by misuse of their freewill, they desire to enjoy for themselves and forget their inherent nature of service to Krsna, they become deluded by maya and thus controlled by karma. When they realize that service to Krsna is their inherent nature, they become free from the bondage of karma and the affliction of maya.
Since the cause of their bondage exists before entry into the material universe, their bondage is called anadi, without beginning in material time, and they are thus called eternally conditioned.
(Caitanya Siksamrita, Bhaktivinoda Thakur, p.35, First Rainfall, Fourth Shower)
So we can see from the above quote that the cause of the jiva's bondage is before material time, of past, present and future. That means the cause is in the spiritual world, because there are only material and spiritual divisions of facts. So what is it, and what causes the bondage one may ask? It is the freewill or independence of the jiva as stated above that exists in Vaikuntha/Goloka. The Neo-Gaudiyas like to limit the free will of the jivas in Vaikuntha by saying that they will never misuse it, but no acarya supports this limited thinking. They cannot provide even one quote to back up their misconception that a jiva in the spiritual world will never misuse his independence.
The jiva's freewill to serve or not to serve, i.e. the energy (jiva) wants to become the energetic (God). The servant would like to enjoy like the master. Instead of finitely enjoying as a servant he wants to infinitely enjoy Krsna's energy, and that will not be allowed in Vaikuntha/Goloka.
In a conversation with devotees during an evening darshan on July 8, 1976 in Washington D.C., Srila Prabhupada says:
Srila Prabhupada: So, even in the Vaikuntha, if I desire that—"Why shall I serving Krsna? Why not become Krsna?"—I immediately fall down. That is natural… You cannot become God. That is not possible. But he's wrongly thinking.
Devotee: Why doesn't Krsna protect us from that desire?
Srila Prabhupada: He's protecting. He says, "You rascal, don't desire. Surrender unto Me." But you are rascal; you do not do this.
Devotee: Why doesn't He save me from thinking like that?
Srila Prabhupada: That means you loose your independence. That is force…Love is reciprocal, voluntary, good exchange of feeling. Then there is love. Not by force.
Remember, this freewill is always with the jiva before material time. And it exists in Vaikuntha forever. Bhaktivinoda Thakur states:
"Those who search for Krsna's happiness are called nitya-mukta, and those who search for their own happiness are called nitya-baddha. In this regard, all inconceivable natures are under the subordination of spiritual time. The time factor of the spiritual nature is a state of eternal present. But in the inferior illusory energy there are three states of existence- past, present, and future. So whatever considerations arise in this regard, if related with the spiritual time factor, then no doubts will remain; but if seen otherwise, then doubts will remain. Why did a pure soul search for his own happiness? If one puts forward such a question, then doubts arising from the material time factor will manifest. If one can give up such doubts then he can perform devotional service, other-wise there will only be a series of arguments. If arguments are related to the inconceivable nature, then anarthas arise.
(Bhaktyaloka, under Niscaya, p.60, 61)
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur is informing us that one should not pose this question, i.e. like the Neo-Gaudiyas who say that how can ISKCON say that the jiva gave up his service to Krsna, and cut his eternal relationship, how is that possible? It is only because the Neo-Gaudiyas cannot understand how freewill is connected to the spiritual time factor in Vaikuntha/Goloka. Because of this they are entangled in criticizing ISKCON and
anarthas are growing. They are thinking that only ISKCON thinks that the jiva fell from Vaikuntha/Goloka, but Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur, and Srila Prabhupada say otherwise.
There is also Y. Jagannatham, B.A., Upadesaka, Bhaktitilaka, an elderly disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur, who was told to translate the Goswami literatures into Telegu and English languages. He wrote a book called Rasa Tattva that scientifically describes how the jiva gives up his service and leaves Vaikuntha. He talks about how our relationship with Krsna is eternal, just like Srila Prabhupada did. Here Prabhupada talks about eternal relations, from the BBT Folio:
"So Vedic culture is very old. It is not a concocted thing or a new pattern. It is eternal. Therefore it is called sanatana. Sanatana means eternal. It has no beginning, no end. Sanatana. So the Vedic culture means sanatana, eternal. Krsna is eternal. We living entities we are eternal. And our relationship and exchange of loving service with Krsna is also eternal. Krsna is eternal, we are eternal, and our dealings with Krsna is also eternal. But sometimes it becomes interrupted by the maya, which is called svapna. Svapna means dreamlike. As a dream has no fact, it is all hallucination, similarly our detachment from Krsna is also a hallucination. Actually there is no detachment…"
Srila Prabhupada has told us many times that the spiritual body is already there in Vaikuntha/Goloka. Here are quotes by Srila Prabhupada and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur:
"So to go to God or Krsna means you have to acquire your original, spiritual body. The spiritual body is already there, but we are now covered by this material body."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, Hamburg, Germany, June 22, 1974)
Srila Prabhupada told Gauragopala dasa in Sydney, Australia, in early 1973:
"Soon you will understand, try to understand also your real bodily form is always in Vaikuntha."
"When he is imprisoned in the material world the spirit soul does not lose his original spiritual form he had in the spiritual world of Vaikuntha. However, because of contact with matter the imprisoned soul loses the memory of his original spiritual form in Vaikuntha. Still his spiritual form does not cease to exist."
(Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, Prema-pradipa,p.83)
"The individual soul naturally resides in Vaikuntha. If he somehow comes to the material world, the individual soul brings with him his spiritual form made of chit. Pervertedly reflected in the material world those things of chit are called by name "matter."
(Prema-pradipa, p.96)
"As long as the jiva takes full shelter of the Supreme Lord he remains a resident of Vaikuntha. But when his innate spiritual knowledge of the Lord is covered by forgetfulness, he is placed outside the transcendental realm."
(Caitanya Siksamrita, Sanmod-ana Bhasya-sloka-1)
"When the pure living entities reside in Vaikuntha, the first knot of nescience in the form of false ego does not entangle them. Pure living entities cannot remain steady after giving up spiritual activities. Therefore as soon as the living entities become situated in their own happiness through the minute independence given by the Lord, they become shelterless and are compelled to take shelter of maya. On account of this, the pure living entities have no shelter other than Vaikuntha. The living entities of Vaikuntha are very insignificant, like fireflies in comparison to the powerful sun like the lord. As soon as the living entity leaves Vaikuntha, he is simultaneously awarded a subtle body and thrown into the material world created by maya. All manifestations of the Sadhini, Samvit and Hladini aspect of the marginal potency are mixed with maya as soon as the living entity leaves the shelter of Vaikuntha.
(Sri Krsna Samhita-2.41)
Does Acaryavilasa think the Acaryas are just making these statements up as pudding for our conditioned ears? We take these statements as facts directly. The one piece of sastra that Acaryavilasa quotes about time is from Brahma Samhita, 5.56:
"(In Goloka)…where there is eternal existence of transcendental time, who is ever present and without past or future and hence is not subject to the quality of passing away even for the space of half a moment. That realm is known as Goloka only to a very few self realized souls in this material world."
Neo-Gaudiyas think that this verse proves their point that no one could leave Goloka because that would mean that there is a defect there, that one could be gone for some time. That is because they are thinking in terms of perceptible time calculation. Time there is in the eternal present. From the earlier quotes, the spiritual form is there in Vaikuntha when the jiva comes here to this world. What is that form doing when it is there? Some have said it is in a closet like a coat that the jiva will put on when he goes there. But in the spiritual world everything is fully conscious. Srila Bhaktivinoda says that when we come here, the spiritual form there does not cease to exist. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur states in text 44 of Brahma Samhita purport:
"When he forgets his service of Krsna he is at once deflected by the attractive power of maya in this world."
So of what time duration is that "once"? That deflecting action is carried out by the praksepatmika shakti. This shakti is under charge of the original Durga in Shivaloka, in which half of the loka is in Vaikuntha and the other half is in the material world. Demigods have their original forms in the spiritual world. This praksepatmika shakti rips the jiva out of the spiritual world and the avaranatmika shakti then totally covers the jiva soul. The jiva's satchitananda vigraha remains in Vaikuntha. This cannot be calculated in material time nor is it a defect in Vaikuntha. Instead it is a perfect arrangement, because love with Krsna is not forced. Freewill is a merciful blessing of the Lord. Srila Prabhupada says in the introduction to the Bhagavad Gita:
"Every living being, out of many, many billions and trillions of living beings, has a particular relationship with the Lord eternally. That is called svarupa. By the process of devotional service, one can revive that svarupa, and that stage is called svarupa siddhi- perfection of one's constitutional position."
Here is a quote for those Neo-Gaudiyas who think that Prabhupada preached the fall of the jiva from Vaikuntha only when he came to the West.
"Just as the rebellious citizens of the state compel (by their actions) the Government to build a prison house, similarly those souls who have turned their face from the Supreme Lord fall from their service to the Supreme Lord and are themselves the cause for the creation of this mayic world of suffering. If in the state criminals or rebellious citizens don't exist then so also there would be no necessity for the prison house. Similarly, if from the Supreme Lord's eternal pastimes (Nitya-lila) no souls would turn themselves away from it, then the creation of the mayaic world also would be put off forever."
(Sri Bhagavat Patrika-1959)
