Revisionism
BY: JAY RADHA RAMAN DAS
Nov 13, 2011 — FRANCE (SUN) — In France, there is an exceptional law which forbids freedom to make any research or different interpretations on the second World War history of the Jew's holocaust, which contradictS the official version. This law was adopted under the government of Laurent Fabius in the summer holidays in 1990 by a few deputies. This law can condemn anyone to prison and assign huge financial penalties. The story of the holocaust was established during the Nuremberg trial and nobody is allowed now, according to this anti-democratic law, to contradict anything by historical research and historical interpretation. The Nuremberg trial has established infallible and irrevocable facts, and discussions are now useless and closed forever. Freedom of opinion and speech on this specific subject matter is finished.
It's a well known fact that history made by the victorious camp is very often far away from objectivity, for obvious reasons. For the sake of Truth, some bold historians, who couldn't accept that history is made by lawsuit, started scientific investigations and brought to light many discrepancies, lies and cheating in this official, indisputable history established at Nuremberg. Some where persecuted by this unbelievable law, the Gayssot law. They were qualified with the name 'Revisionists' and even the name 'Negationists'.
The GBC Resolution No 79-80/1995 strangely resembles this Gayssot law. Here also freedom of opinion and speech is now forbidden (and punishable by banishment from ISCKON), on the history of the origin of the Jiva, if it is different from the official siddhanta established not at Nuremberg, but at the 1995 GBC meetings. Here is the resolution:
"Vaikuntha is that place from which no one ever falls down. The living entity belongs to Lord Krishna's marginal potency (tatastha-sakti). On this we all agree. The origin of the conditioned life of the souls now in this material world is undoubtedly beyond the range of our direct perception. We can therefore best answer questions about that origin by repeating the answers Srila Prabhupada gave when such questions were asked of him:
"The original home of the living entity and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the spiritual world. In the spiritual world both the Lord and the living entities live together very peacefully. Since the living entity remains engaged in the service of the Lord, they both share a blissful life in the spiritual world. However, when the living entity, misusing his tiny independence, wants to enjoy himself, he falls down into the material world." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.28.54, purport)
No ISKCON devotee shall present or publish any contrary view as conclusive in any class or seminar or any media (print, video, electronic, etc.).
From Caitanya-caritamrta Adi lila 2.117, Translation:
"A sincere student should not neglect the discussion of such conclusions, considering them controversial, for such discussions strengthen the mind. Thus one's mind becomes attached to Sri Krsna.
Purport by Srila Prabhupada:
False devotees, lacking the conclusion of transcendental knowledge, think that artificially shedding tears will deliver them. Similarly, other false devotees think that studying books of the previous acaryas is unadvisable, like studying dry empiric philosophies. But Srila Jiva Goswami, following the previous acaryas, has inculcated the conclusions of the scriptures in the six theses called the Sat-sandarbhas. False devotees who have very little knowledge of such conclusions fail to achieve pure devotion for want of zeal in accepting the favorable directions for devotional service given by self-realized devotees. Such false devotees are like impersonalists, who also consider devotional service no better than ordinary fruitive actions."
Inspired by this verse from the Caitanya-caritamrta and the purport by Srila Prabhupada, I decided not to give up good sense and critical intelligence, but rather use them to better understand the philosophy of the jiva and particularly the origin of the jiva. A conclusion based on a single purport, isolated from the context, as well as the discard of many other verses from Prabhupada's books and the previous Acarya's books cannot be conclusive on the siddhanta, ruling out forever any possibility of further discussions.
After reading the forbidden book, In Vaikuntha Not Even the Leaves Fall, and Our Original Position (not convincing) published as a response to the former, it appeared to me that the dogma of the GBC resolution cannot pass the test of Guru, Sadhu and Sastra, and not even the test of pure Logic.
So a revisionist approach is needed.
To resume globally the situation, we have two thesis on the chessboard, face to face:
A) A simple explanation on the origin of the jiva who falls from Vaikuntha, the spiritual world, very similar to the original sin of the Abrahamic religions, a conception which pervades completely the western world.
B) A complex explanation on the anadi origin of the jiva, the revisionist explanation. This is a very difficult concept to understand for Westerners with mind embedded in space and time, uniting two opposite concepts, creation without beginning or origin without starting point. This idea is already used in our philosophy to explain the origin of the Avatars, Radharani or even Caitanya Mahaprabhu from Krsna without rising any kind of polemic.
- The first thesis creates many unanswerable questions and logical problems, as we will see in the following discussion.
- The second one, despite the initial complexity of the concept anadi solves all these questions and logical problems in a simple way.
DISCUSSION
Inventory of the questions without answer arisen from the acceptation of the thesis A:
A) Free Will
Basic statements accepted by both parties (fall and no fall vadis):
- Free will can be misused (for enjoying matter, senses and mind) or properly used (serving Krsna, loving Krsna)
- Free will exists in Vaikuntha, otherwise it would be like a prison and the inhabitants like robots
- In the process (krama) of the development of bhakti with the conditioned souls, they raise from sraddha to prema with a surrender (saranagathi) increasing progressively to become at last, fully surrendered. This is no more than the surrender of the misuse of the free will. The more bhakti increases, the more the free will is used correctly.
Conclusions from these statements:
- At the level of prema, the free will is used correctly, it is neither lost (because used), neither forced (because free). It is the irresistible influence of prema which inspires the correct use of the free will, nothing is lost nor forced.
- Bhakti implies automatically the correct used of free will
- The inhabitants of Vaikuntha, the nitya-siddha use always correctly their free will because they are at the level of prema
- Bhakti is part of the svarupa (fundamental constitution) of the jiva in Vaikuntha, and also the correct use of the free will. It is impossible to separate bhakti (including the correct use of the free will) from theses jivas.
Final conclusion:
- The inhabitants of Vaikunthas cannot fall in this material world.
A) bis
But, let's suppose that the inhabitants of Vaikuntha decide (they are free ) to use their free will in an incorrect way. This would imply two possibilities: they never had any bhakti, or they lost it.
- They haven't any bhakti: impossible because they would not be there
- They have lost bhakti by:
- pure madness: impossible, they have bhakti which is composed of two energies, samvit sakti and hladhini sakti. Samvit is the energy of knowledge, intelligence. There isn't any madness in Vaikutha except the madness for the lotus feet of the Lord.
- Maya's attack: impossible, Maya cannot enter into Vaikuntha, as Suta Goswami explains in Srimad Bhagavatam 2.9.10.
- free will: it will be like a man who has just won 500 millions dollars at the lottery and then decides to commit suicide, or like a man who just after embarking voluntary on a plane decides to jump out. These examples are very pale compared to the difference of happiness between this world and the spiritual world. All this will be profound madness and it is impossible in Vaikuntha.
TO RESUME
With bhakti, the free will come under the control of love and we loose the faculty (and not free will itself) of misusing it. The only option is to use it correctly in the service of Krsna. Even the lovers of this material world will tell you that they are no more free, because love controls them, what to speak of transcendental prema in the spiritual world.
QUESTION: How is it possible to misuse the free will in Vaikuntha and fall down, what are the mechanisms, the causes and the reasons?
B) Pure Bhakti and it's nature
- Once reached, it become part of the svarupa of the jiva, like heat is a part of the svarupa of the fire, both are inseparable.
- prema bhakti: no more anarthas, they cannot come back.
- bhakti is eternal
- bhakti is independent, Maya or the material energy cannot have any effect on bhakti.
- bhakti is part of the internal energy of the Lord, therefore, it is infallible. Bhakti cannot be covered by the external energy, cannot be diminished or lost.
QUESTION: How can a nitya-siddha at the level of prema at Vaikuntha lose his Bhakti and fall in the material world?
C) The spiritual body and it's nature
The spiritual body cannot be covered by matter (maya). Like the fire which never can be covered by darkness. Brahman cannot be covered by maya otherwise we fall in the Mayavadi philosophy.
The spiritual body, either, cannot be transformed, it is avikara, intransformable.
For the nitya-baddha, the spiritual body is present like a seed or a potential, it can be covered by maya because it is not mature, it is in a seed form. Its maturation by sadhana-bhakti progressively cleans the covering of maya.
QUESTION: How a fully developed spiritual body of a Vaikuntha jiva can be transformed or can be covered by maya?
D) Spiritual happiness
There are three kinds of happiness:
- ukhananda: sense gratification and mind gratification
- brahmananda: liberation from the material world
Both are static, they cannot increase more than a certain level
- bhakyananda: dynamic, increasing ad infinitum, no limit, anandabuddhi vardanam
A devotee tastes more bliss than Krsna (the Manjaris have more bliss than Radha)
The Lord is under the control of his devotees, the devotes in this way control even the opulences of the Lord. Krsna takes pleasure in serving His devotees: bhajami aham (Bg IX 22)
QUESTION: How a pure devotee fully in bhaktyananda could instead choose sukhananda or even brahmananda.
How a pure devotee could be envious of Krsna because he enjoys the same opulences and even enjoys maybe more bliss than Him?
E) Full protection
- The Lord always protects his devotee (Bhagavad-gita).
- The association of pure devotees is a very powerful protection against maya and all kinds of mistakes. In Vaikuntha, certainly, nobody is lacking the association of the most exalted devotees.
QUESTION: How with this quantity and quality of protection would a devotee leave such association full of rasayana katha and the personal association of the Lord? Even if a small contamination would enter Vaikuntha (which is inconceivable), it will be immediately purified by the powerful associations.
F) Kaimutya logic
If a child can lift five kilos, an adult can, of course, also lift five kilos, this is known as Kaimutya logic.
QUESTION: If a nitya-siddha of Vaikuntha can fall, what to speak of a sadhana-siddha? If a sadhana-siddha cannot fall, what to speak of a nitya-siddha?
G) Vaikuntha
If we can fall from Vaikuntha, this place will be full of anxiety and then should change his name.
QUESTION: Why Vaikuntha is called Vaikuntha, the place of no anxiety?
H) Classification of Jivas
According Visvanath Cakrarvati Takhur:
baddha: conditioned in material world
mukta or jivan mukta: liberated in the material world
siddha: who has attained Vaikuntha, the perfection
nitya-parsada or nitya-mukta or nitya-siddha: eternally liberated in Vaikuntha
According Baladeva Vidyabhusana:
nitya-mukta: eternally liberated
baddha-mukta: who was conditioned and now is liberated
baddha: conditioned in matter
According Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur:
QUESTION: Why those who are in Vaikuntha and who can fall down are not differentiated from those in Vaikuntha who cannot fall down? Why there is never any direct words or historical accounts on the fall of the jiva from Vaikuntha down to our level? Is there in Vaikuntha two categories: the nitya-siddha who are no more nitya, who can fall down at any moment, and the real nitya-siddha (baddha-mukta?) who came back from the material world and cannot fall down again?
So many examples in Vedic literature of jivas in the material world who get free and no examples at all of jivas in Vaikuntha who fall down. This looks strange. (Jaya and Vijaya is not an appropriate example.)
I) Anadi
How to reconcile the two controversial meanings: without beginning / immemorial time
1) Both means immemorial time. The problem is that, without beginning, would admit a starting point no more remembered, which will be contradictory.
2) Both means without beginning. It's working because if there is no beginning, there is also no possibility to remember it.
QUESTION: How can we ignore the meaning of 'without beginning' in the theory of the fall of Vaikuntha and assimilate it with immemorial time without juggling words?
J) Possible causes of the fall from Vaikuntha
- ENVY: According to D, it seems difficult that a devotee can envy Krsna, further, according to A, this seems contradictory with Bhakti itself. Envy is no more than a material sentiment embedded in duality.
- MADNESS: impossible, see A bis
- LOSS OF BHAKTI: impossible, see A bis
- ATTACK OF MAYA: impossible, there is no maya in Vaikuntha, see also E
- FREE WILL DECISION: impossible see A
- DECISION OF KRNSA: no, because He is always protecting His devotees, who are very dear to Him
- CAUSELESS: impossible because otherwise even a jiva who goes back to Vaikuntha would be able to fall again, Vaikuntha will not be a place free of anxiety. Also, the Lord will not be the Supreme Controller of every thing.
QUESTION: What is the primary cause of the fall down from Vaikuntha?
As we can see, the discussion is far from being closed, as the GBC Resolution would like us to believe. The fall theory raises many unanswered questions -- even more than the no fall revisionist theory.
I have seen during many years, various debates with different arguments: on what Srila Prabhupada had said, what the scriptures say or what are the true meaning of Sanskrit words, but I invite also to investigate the consequences of the acceptance of one side or the other. I have tried in this short essay to indicate many philosophical questions, which follow naturally after the acceptance of the thesis of the fall from Vaikuntha.
To resume, we have two thesis:
- A simple explanation on the origin of the jiva, very much in the line of the Judeo-Christian paradigm of the fall from heaven, but unfortunately with many unanswerable questions.
- A complex explanation even inconceivable, with a concept outside the western thought (anadi) who solve easily all those philosophical questions arisen from the precedent thesis.
I beg forgiveness for my imperfect use of English language and if I have offended anyone by my revisionist approach.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada
An insignificant jiva trying to understand his origin,
Jay Radha Raman das
