The Beginning of His Material Life
BY: ACARYAVILASA DASA
Jan 23, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (SUN) — "The Beginning of His Material Life", Srila Prabhupada.
One of the favorite quotes of the Goloka-Envy-Fallvadis (GEFs) is as follows:
Srila Prabhupada to Madhudvisa Swami, letter 1972: "Formerly we were with Krsna in His lila, or sport."
Of course, this is Truth, but begs the question: Which lila of Sri Krsna?
The whole creation is the lila of Sri Krsna, and within the creation, Sri Krsna enacts multifarious lilas in unlimited forms: Sri Narayana, Nrsimha Deva, Vamana Deva, Buddha Deva, Sri Rama, Matsya Deva, Hayagriva Deva, etc, etc. Yes, Sri Krsna's lilas are as unlimited as His forms.
Sri Krsna as Sri Maha Visnu
One such lila of Sri Krsna is in His form as Sri Maha Visnu. Described in the Srimad Bhagavatam, Sri Krsna in His form as Maha Visnu lies within the Causal Ocean and emanates the marginal souls and emanates the material universes, which float within the Casual Ocean.
Srila Prabhupada, purport, Sb 3.13.34:
"The Lord can assume any form He likes, and in all circumstances He is the cause of all causes. Since His form is transcendental, He is always the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as He is in the Causal Ocean in the form of Maha-Visnu. Innumerable universes generate from the holes of His bodily hairs, and thus His transcendental body is the Vedas personified."
Sri Maha Visnu Emanates the Marginal Jivas
Sri Krsna in His lila as Maha Visnu within Causal Ocean, the borderline between the material and spiritual, expands the tatastha-shakti jivas, the borderline potency living entities.
Srila Prabhupada lecture Vishakapatnam, Feb 1972:
"We are, we the jivas, we are also expansion of Krsna or Visnu."
Another name of Maha Visnu is Sankarsana; He expands the tatastha-shakti jivas.
Srila Prabhupada, purport, Cc Adi 2.36:
"Sankarsana is the original source of all living entities because they are all expansions of His marginal potency. Some of them are conditioned by material nature, whereas others are under the protection of the spiritual nature."
The Marginal Jivas Choose Material or Spiritual Existence
These marginal jivas situated at the borderline Causal Ocean may choose between the material and spiritual creations as subsequent spheres of activities. Some choose the material creation:
Srila Prabhupada, purport, Cc Madhya, 20.117:
"Being in the marginal position, he is sometimes attracted by the external, illusory energy, and this is the beginning of his material life."
So here Srila Prabhupada explains the initial fall of the jiva, the "beginning of his material life". So yes, "Formerly we were with Krsna in His lila." However, Srila Prabhupada and Vedas inform us that that lila of Krsna was as Sri Maha Visnu within the Causal Ocean generating the material universes and also generating the marginal potency, tatastha-shakti-jivas, some of whom become "attracted by the external, illusory energy, and this is the beginning of his [their] material life." Once the tatastha-shakti-jiva falls into the material illusory potency he forgets his "original constitutional position" as a servant of the Supreme Lord and considers himself a product of the material energy. Thereby we understand Srila Prabhupada's usage of "formerly", which indicates that we have forgotten our position as the emanated creation of Sri Maha Visnu or Krsna in favor of the illusory material identity.
Conclusion
The materially conditioned jiva has emanated from Sri Maha Visnu within the Causal Ocean and through his free will has chosen material existence. This is "the beginning of his material life". The GEFs' idea that the jiva has fallen from Goloka-Vrndavana is erroneous. The GEFs only exhibit prejudice and a poor fund of knowledge when they insist that the "lila" from which the marginal jiva has fallen is the Goloka-Vrndavana lila – simply because Goloka-Vrndavana is not the marginal position of the jiva. The krsna-prema-lila of Goloka-Vrndavana is the perfect eternal shelter of the jiva and is described as such throughout the Vedas and is the conclusion of Srila Prabhupada:
No Fall from the Vaikuntha Planets
Purport, Sb. 3.16.26.:
"The conclusion is that no one falls from the spiritual world, or Vaikuntha planet, for it is the eternal abode."
Also, purport, Sb 3.15.48:
"From the Vedic scriptures it is understood that sometimes even Brahma and Indra fall down, but a devotee in the transcendental abode [planets] of the Lord never falls."
Furthermore, purport, Sb 5.11.12:
"The eternally liberated living beings are in Vaikuntha jagat [planets] and they never fall into the material world."
Moreover, purport, Sb 7.1.35:
"…when Jaya and Vijaya descended to this material world, they came because there was something to be done for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Otherwise it is a fact that no one falls from Vaikuntha [planets as did Jaya and Vijaya]."
The Vedas describe the fall of the tatastha-shakti-jiva, marginal living entity to the material universes:
The Vaikuntha Planets are the Perfect Eternal Shelter
Beyond speculation, here is Srila Prabhupada's description of the perfection of the Vaikuntha planets wherein he specifically says that "there is no possibility of enmity", Sb purport, 3.15.33:
"In the Vaikuntha world there is no disharmony between the Lord and the residents. Therefore God's creation in the Vaikuntha world is perfect. There is no cause of fear. The entire kingdom of God is such a completely harmonious unit that there is no possibility of enmity. Everything there is absolute. Just as there are many physiological constructions within the body yet they work in one order for the satisfaction of the stomach, and just as in a machine there are hundreds and thousands of parts yet they run in harmony to fulfil the function of the machine, in the Vaikuntha planets the Lord is perfect, and the inhabitants also perfectly engage in the service of the Lord."
Now, the wise will not be blind to the words in this description above, "there is no possibility of enmity… …in the Vaikuntha planets the Lord is perfect, and the inhabitants also perfectly engage in the service of the Lord". Thus the jiva falls from Vaikuntha but not the planets of Vaikuntha.
The Initial Fall from the Causal Ocean
"In the Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad, 4.3.9, we find:
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."
Thus the jiva, throughout the Vedas is defined as the tatastha-shakti, the borderline potency, of the Lord as he first manifests at the tata, borderline, between the spiritual and material, the Divine Causal Ocean. In this way, the fallen jiva was formerly with Krsna in His lila as Sri Maha-Visnu, creating the material universes and the marginal living entities."
The GEFs that teach otherwise are grossly mistaken and misrepresenting the teachings of the Vedas as perfectly conveyed by Srila Prabhupada above.
Yet, one cannot awaken a man who pretends to be asleep in his word-jugglery and misinterpretation of a great acarya. Such souls continue in the lower dream creation of Sri Maha Visnu and never attain the perfection of Goloka-Vrndavana that is extolled throughout the Vedas and by the great Vaisnava Acaryas.
Aum Tat Sat
