By Patita Pavana Das
The point has no length, no breadth
Srila Prabhupada lectured: “We fall down when we deny to accept Krishna as the Supreme or we try to imitate Krishna, "Why Krishna shall be enjoyer? We shall also enjoy. Why Krishna shall have rasa dance? We shall have also rasa dance. Why Krishna will marry sixteen thousand wives? We shall marry at least sixteen wives." When this competitive spirit comes, then we fall down. Fall down means Krishna gives the chance, "All right, you also go. You also dance in the hotel, ball dance, and be complicated and implicated." (ŚP Lecture on BG 4.20)
The same we find in the sandarbhas of Sri Jiva Gosvami.
Our original position according to the Sandarbhas.
Essay on sakhalānām: no unsteadiness
This ‘sakhalānām’ is stated by Srila Jiva Gosvami in Bhagavat Sandarbha.
(we have used several
translations; HHBanu Swami, HG Kusakratha Prabhu, one Vrajavasi Babaji)
Srila Prabhupada also says that sakhalānām sometimes. SB 3.25.4, purport - “The Lord wanted to create the cosmic manifestation to give another chance to the conditioned souls who were dormant in forgetfulness. The cosmic manifestation gives the conditioned souls a chance to go back home, back to Godhead, and that is its main purpose. The Lord is so kind that in the absence of such a manifestation He feels something wanting, and thus the creation takes place. Although the creation of the internal potency was manifested, the other potency appeared to be sleeping, and the Lord wanted to awaken her to activity, just as a husband wants to awaken his wife from the sleeping state for enjoyment. It is the compassion of the Lord for the sleeping energy that He wants to see her awaken for enjoyment like the other wives who are awake. The whole process is to enliven the sleeping conditioned souls to the real life of spiritual consciousness so that they may thus become as perfect as the ever-liberated souls in the Vaikunthalokas. Since the Lord is sac-cid-ananda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1], He likes every part and parcel of His different potencies to take part in the blissful rasa because participation with the Lord in His eternal rasa-lila is the highest living condition, perfect in spiritual bliss and eternal knowledge.”
Comment: “…back home, back to Godhead…the Vaikunthalokas…to take part in His eternal rasa-lila.”
Back to home, back to Godhead where there is the rasa-lila. Back to means we return from where we came.
The description of the Lord with many wives, has also the same conclusion; the souls originate from Radha-Krishna’s lila; other wives are awake. One wife (or many conditioned souls) is sleeping. She is of course not eternally sleeping, or since birth. She was awake before, had fallen asleep and becomes reawakened.
First he states: the ever-liberated souls in the Vaikunthalokas, the nitya-siddhas who never come here. But he also says that the nitya-baddha can become nitya-siddha again, by going back home, back to Godhead. Thus nitya in nitya-siddha is not absolutely nitya, similarly as the nitya in nitya-baddha is not an absolute eternal bondage.
The same in Srimad Bhagavatam 5.11.12 Srila Prabhupada states both versions, fall and not fall with the conclusion: he is liberated again…. soul knows how he has become conditioned and returns home back to Godhead:
“In this sloka the word kshetrajna refers to an ordinary living being, not the supreme living being. This ordinary living being is of two kinds -- nitya-baddha or nitya-mukta. One is eternally conditioned and the other eternally liberated. The eternally liberated living being; are in the Vaikuntha jagat, the spiritual world, and they never fall into the material world. Those in the material world are conditioned souls, nitya-baddha. The nitya-baddhas can become liberated by controlling the mind because the cause of conditioned life is the mind. When the mind is trained and the soul is not under the mind’s control, the soul can be liberated even in this material world. When it is liberated, one is called jivan-mukta. A jivan-mukta knows how he has become conditioned; therefore he tries to purify himself and return home, back to Godhead.”
And in this conversation: “…there are millions and millions of liberated souls who are engaged in Krishna. They never misuse their independence. And we small quantity, we misused our independence. We wanted to enjoy separately. Therefore we are conditioned…liberated souls are never conditioned. They never become conditioned. Yes?
Devotee: You mean they never were conditioned at any time or…You said there were millions of souls…
Prabhupada: Yes. They were never conditioned. They were never conditioned, never conditioned. They are called nitya-mukta, eternally liberated. We are only simple few, this material world. Just like I have several times told you that the prison house. The population of prison house is nothing in comparison to the whole population...
Bhaktijana: How could we make a poor choice if we were part and parcel of Krishna? How could we have chosen the material world?
Prabhupada: Oh, because you have got independence. Don’t you see so many students come. They go away again. Yesterday Kirtanananda went to call Ranchora. He said, “Oh, I have forgotten this!” So you can forget. There is another student. He was also our student, Wally. “Oh, you can go immediately!”…“Oh, I don’t care for this Krishna consciousness Society. Who calls you? You can go.” That independence is there. We can misuse.
Bhaktijana: But Krishna will always be there if we want to go back?
Prabhupada: Krishna is always prepared to accept you. He’s always prepared. But because He has given us independence, we misuse it and we fall under the clutches of maya. That is our misfortune. We create this misfortune, and we can create our good fortune. “Man is the architect of his own fortune.” So if you become Krishna conscious, it is to your good fortune. If you become maya conscious, it is to your bad fortune. You are the creator.
Bhaktijana: When the souls that were never conditioned at all…, do they also have the independence?
Prabhupada: Yes, but they have not misused. They know that “I am meant for Krishna’s service,” and they are happy in Krishna’s service.
Bhaktijana: Could they ever misuse it?
Prabhupada: Yes, they can misuse it also. That power is there. (Lecture, CC Adi 7.108, February 18, 1967)
Our comment: He says many times that those in Vaikuntha never fall, but then a little later he says they can fall, and these few, rare exceptions are the one’s here. Never, with a footnote. ‘No one’ is not a categorical absolute.
Here another example: Śuddha-bhakta means they do not come to the material world. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam (Brs. 1.1.11), the śuddha-bhaktas, nitya, nitya-siddha, they do not come to this material world. They are everlastingly liberated soul, engaged in the service of Nārāyaṇa…..in the spiritual world, Vaikuṇṭhaloka…. there are two kinds of living entities. One kind of living entities, they are trying to go back to home, back to Godhead. They are called devatās. And the asuras, they are not aware of the spiritual world; neither they are endeavoring to go back to home, back to Godhead…. māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ (BG 9.32). Pāpa-yoni means muci, less than the śūdras. If he takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim, they are also eligible to go back to home, to back to Godhead…. If we take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then he becomes a śuddha, śuci, purified, and he is eligible to go back to home, to back to Godhead….
tān ahaṁ dviṣataḥ krūrān
saṁsāreṣu narādhamān
kṣipāmy ajasram aśubhān
āsurīṣa yoniṣu (BG 16.19)
He keeps them always put into this asuric yoni, everlastingly forgetting the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and suffer in this material world. (751226_-_Lecture_BG_16.07_-_Sanand)
Our comment. First he says: “śuddha-bhaktas, nitya-siddha never come down”, but then he says that the nitya-baddha goes back to home, Vaikuṇṭhaloka. Thus this ‘’ do not come to this material world. They are everlastingly liberated’’ is not literal; he means it rarely happens. That understanding is proven by him stating later commenting on the verse: ‘’Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, I perpetually cast into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life.” That ‘’they will always be put into this asuric yoni, everlastingly’’. We know that no soul will be eternally in the material world; the soul is not meant for maya and not natural to matter and will after having become materially exhausted return to Vaikuntha. The word “everlastingly” is in the second time used non-literal, and also in the first time used non-literal, otherwise the nitya-baddha returning to Vaikuntha would be contradictory; he must have come from there, thus he can be returning. And if nitya–siddha means never come down then nitya-baddha must mean never go up. That is not so; every nitya-baddha will once have had all the rasas of the material world since the material world is a quantitative limited area, and will then return to Vaikuntha.
Also for this bhagavat sandarbha text we should study the context.
Sri Jiva Gosvami writes in Anuccheda 1, bhagavat sandarbha:
“Having described In the previous (Tattva) Sandarbha in a general way the truth as advaya-jnana (vadanti tat tattva-vidas, tattvam yad jnanam advayam), the speaker describes more particularly the unique manifestation of that truth according to the particular qualification of the worshipper. The Absolute is known in three features, called Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan.
This is his introduction.
Anuccheda 60 is about the Bhagavan’s Ornaments and Paraphernalia.
Anucchedas 61-78 The Spiritual World, Vaikuntha.
Anuccheda 79 The Four Kumaras See Lord Narayana.
In anuccheda 63 and again in 64 we read ‘sakhalAnAm’ which means ‘without falling down’, ‘no unsteadiness’, ‘which the devotee never leaves’, ‘not slipping or shaking’.
All the verses in this section are glorification of the spiritual world, Vaikuntha (nothing is stated there about the original fall down.)
Finally, only Krishna katha:
sa vai manah krishna-padaravindayor
vacamsi vaikuntha-gunanuvarnane
sah—he (Maharaja Ambarisha); vai—indeed; manah—his mind; krishna-pada-aravindayoh—(fixed) upon the two lotus feet of Lord Krishna; vacamsi—his words; vaikuntha-guna-anuvarnane—describing the glories of Krishna or Vaikuntha
Maharaja Ambarisha always engaged his mind in meditating upon the lotus feet of Krishna, his words in describing the glories of the Lord or Vaikuntha. (SB 9.4.18)
Sri Jiva Gosvami will in this section take us to Vaikuntha, and will not discuss, the mudhas, hogs-, dogs-, camels-, asses-like-men down there. These are driven out from Vaikuntha, that we all know. As we here in our worlds know that if we do crime or break the law we get jail or a fine.
Now only vaikuntha-gunaAnuvarnane– talk of Vaikuntha.
As when in a book or magazine the king and his palace is glorified, there is no description of the jail house. Everyone knows that silly, foolish, insane, mad, proud devils, rebels, criminals, rascals are driven out from the palace or paradise, Vaikuntha.
As we read in Bhagavad-gita 7.27:
iccha-dvesha-samutthena
dvandva-mohena bharata
sarva-bhutani sammoham
sarge yanti parantapa
iccha—desire; dvesha—and hate; samutthena—arisen from; dvandva—of duality; mohena—by the illusion; bharata—O scion of Bharata; sarva—all; bhutani—living entities; sammoham—into delusion; sarge—while taking birth; yanti—go; parantapa—O conqueror of enemies.
O scion of Bharata, O conqueror of the foe, all living entities are born into delusion, bewildered by dualities arisen from desire and hate.
Purport: The real constitutional position of the living entity is that of subordination to the Supreme Lord, who is pure knowledge. When one is deluded into separation from this pure knowledge, he becomes controlled by the illusory energy and cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The illusory energy is manifested in the duality of desire and hate. Due to desire and hate, the ignorant person wants to become one with the Supreme Lord and envies Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
And in 13.21:
karya-karana-kartritve
hetuh prakritir ucyate
purushah sukha-duhkhanam
bhoktritve hetur ucyate
karya—of effect; karana—and cause; kartritve—in the matter of creation; hetuh—the instrument; prakritih—material nature; ucyate—is said to be; purushah—the living entity; sukha—of happiness; duhkhanam—and distress; bhoktritve—in enjoyment; hetuh—the instrument; ucyate—is said to be.
Nature is said to be the cause of all material causes and effects, whereas the living entity is the cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments in this world.
Purport: In his original state there is no doubt of enjoyment; therefore that is his real state. Because of the desire to lord it over material nature, he is in the material world. In the spiritual world there is no such thing. The spiritual world is pure, but in the material world everyone is struggling hard to acquire different kinds of pleasures for the body…The fact is that every individual living entity is eternally part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, and both of them are very intimately related as friends. But the living entity has the tendency to reject the sanction of the Supreme Lord and act independently in an attempt to dominate nature, and because he has this tendency he is called the marginal energy of the Supreme Lord. The living entity can be situated either in the material energy or in the spiritual energy. As long as he is conditioned by the material energy, the Supreme Lord, as his friend, the Supersoul, stays with him just to get him to return to the spiritual energy. The Lord is always eager to take him back to the spiritual energy, but due to his minute independence the individual entity is continually rejecting the association of spiritual light…fallen into this material existence… revert to spiritual consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness…go back to Godhead, back to home.
Comment: The soul is marginal energy and should return back to the enjoyment of the spiritual world, where he came from.
These verses on ‘no fall’ are in the context of discussing that devotees are not after enjoying in or falling for the material heavenly planets, and the falling of the soul from the material heavenly planets. The soul doesn’t fall from Vaikuntha like that; a forced fall, as described in the Govinda-bhasya to Vedanta-sutra 3.1.23 on leaving the heavenly planets :
“The astral body (Soma-râja) assumed by the soul in the Chandra loka was taken for the sake of enjoying the pleasures of that world : that astral body (literally, the body of water) melts away like ice under the rays of the burning sun; and when the karma is exhausted, that body is evaporated by the fire of grief, at
the prospect of impending fall; and thus the soul becomes disembodied like ether and then it comes under the control of air, and then it becomes
united with smoke and the rest.” Then the soul lands in a human body on the earth planet.
That souls do fall down originally from Vaikuntha, Sri Jiva Gosvami describes in other sections of his sandarbhas.
We will cite now.
Paramatma Sandarbha
Bhagavan himself appears as Paramatma, but the jiva appears from his portion (Paramatma) which is united with the Lord's special power (tatasha-sakti). This is according to the following principle.
ajani ca yan-mayarit tad avimucya niyantr bhavet
The product (jiva) which has the qualities of the cause cannot be separated from the cause. The cause is thus the controller of the effect. (SB I0.87.30) In Visnu Purana it is also said:
yasyayutayutamsamse viSva-saktir iyam sthita
para-brahma-svarupam yat pranamama tam avyayam
I offer respects to the indestructible supreme Brahman, by whose portion of a ten thousandth portion the sakti of this universe is situated. The vibhinnamsas are the jivas, composed of tatastha-sakti…..
prag-vasana-nibandhanambandhanam ca vimuktaye
tasmad viddhi tad-amsams tan sarvamsam tam ajam prabhum
For liberation from all bondage caused by previous desires, please understand about the jivas and unborn Lord of all jivas. (Paramâtmâ Sandarbha ANUCCHEDA 1)
Comment. Desire bhoga, then become bound. Then become liberated again.
Using the descriptions found in Padma Purana, Jāmitr, an esteemed guru of the ancient Śrī-sampradāya following Rāmānuja’s philosophy, has described the jīva’s primary (svarūpa) qualities. In explaining pranava, the following is found in Padma Purina, Uttara-khanda (6.226.34-37):
jñānāśrayo jñāna-gunas cetanah prakrteh parah
najāto nirvikāraś caeka-rāpah svarūpa-bhāk
The jīva is the shelter of knowledge, has the quality of knowledge, is conscious and beyond prakrti. It has no birth and no change. It has its own individual form.
anur nityo vyāpti-śīlascid-ānandātmakas tathā
aham-artho ’vyayah ksetrī bhinna-rūpah sanātanah
The jīva is small, eternal, and spreads out. It has knowledge and bliss, and the sense of “I.” It does not decrease, is the knower of the body, and is different from other jīvas eternally.
Based on this, Jāmātr Muni teaches as follows:
ātmā na devo na naro na tiryak sthāvaro na ca
na deho nendriyam naiva manah prāno na nāpi dhīh
The jīva is not a devatā, not a human not an animal or plant. It is not a body or a sense, nor is it mind, prāna or intellect.
Each jīva has its own identity, and is separate from other jīvas. It is very small and eternally pure.
tathājñātrtva-kartrtva-bhoktrtva-nija-dharmakah
paramātmaika-śesatva-svabhāvah sarvadā svatah
It is a knower, doer, and enjoyer by its very nature. By its nature it is subservient to Paramātmā at all times.
The explanation of Jāmātr is according to Rāmānuja’s commentary.
The qualities never leave the ātmā as long as the ātmā exists over all time with no beginning and no end. The śruti shows this. Na hi vijñātur vijñāter vipañlopo vidyate: knowledge never leaves the ātmā. (Brhād-āranyaka Upanisad 4.3.30)
These qualities manifest in the jīva in liberation, just as qualities of male and female manifest in a person as they mature.
puàstvädivat tv asya sato’bhivyakti-yogät
You cannot say that the jīva’s knowledge is not eternal, because it exists during deep sleep and simply manifests on waking. It is like maleness which is unmanifest in a child but appears when he grows up. (Brahma-sūtra 2.3.29)
Jīva’s qualities which are similar to the Lord’s are hidden. From meditation on the Supreme Lord, a śakti which defies darkness appears by the mercy of the Lord, like the power of a medicine.
If it were not a matter of these qualities manifesting or not man ifesting in the jīva, one would either percieve the qualities at all times (being eternally manifested) or not perceive them at all (not being present at all in the jiva). This is the case of material objects which have no consciousness. If thejiva did not have these qualities inherent in his svarūpa, there would be no tendency to manifest them. Thus the jiva is anu by nature, but pervades the body by his qualities.
Rāmānuja explains it in this way. Just as a fiery object remains with a glowing form, so the consciousness remains with its conscious form. Even if the effulgence arises as a quality of the substance, it is also the fiery substance, not a mere quality like whitness. It is the substance, since it takes shelter of itself, it can be present elsewhere, it has a form and it reveals things. This is different from whiteness. The ability to reveal things means its natural ability to reveal other things. Effulgence is sometimes classed as its quality because it always takes shelter of the substance and depends on it. It can never be said that the object with it parts is depleted when it spreads its effulgence since one would then see gems and the sun disappear after radiating effulgence.
Just as a lamp is termed the source of qualities since it has unfail ing qualities like effulgence, so the jlva is the source of qualities, since it is endowed with unfailing qualities. Though the jīva is one, it pervades by its qualities. That quality of consciousness is unbroken, but by the śakti called avidya-karma,the consciousness contracts or expands.
pṛthag-upadeśāt
Knowledge in the jīva is eternal because of teachings in the scriptures. (Brahma-sūtra 2.3.26)
Madhva quotes from Kauśika-śruti in this regard for proof:
bhinno ‘cintyah paramo jiva-sañghāt
pūnah paro jīva-sañgho by apūrnah
yato ’py asau nitya-mukto ’py ahamś ca
bandān moksam tata evābhivanchet
The Lord is different from the jīvas and inconceivable. He is supreme and complete. The jīvas are incomplete. Because I am eternally liberated, he desires liberation from bondage.
The jiva is a knower. According to the previous logic, being a knower is a quality of the jiva.
Since the jiva is eternal, being the shelter of knowledge is jīva’s natural quality. Śruti says vijñātaram are kena vijānlyāt: by what should the knower be known? (Brhad-āranyaka Upanisad 4.3.30) The jīva knows. (Paramātmā Sandarbha anuccheda 19 )
Others describe nondifference among all ātmās in two ways. Some say that there is actual non-difference between ātmās since difference is due to upādhis only. The separate identities are caused by the respective upādhis in each ātmās in the material world. Others say that even in the material world there is identity of all as one jīva but, like a dream, individuality is created. Both ideas can be rejected since it is impossible to explain the origin of ignorance, which is the basis of upadhis or dream state. The ideas are not intelligible. The concepts of bifurcation, shadow and reflection (Brahman becoming a jīva) will all be shown to be faulty. (Paramatma Sandarbha Anuccheda 19)
Comment: “be rejected since it is impossible to explain the origin of ignorance”
Change (vikara) in the jiva is rejected:
visargadyah smasananta bhava dehasya natmanah
kalanam iva candrasya kalenavyakta-vartmana
The various phases of one's material life, beginning with birth and culminating in death, are all properties of the body and do not affect the soul, just as the apparent waxing and waning of the moon does not affect the moon itself. Such changes are enforced by the imperceptible movements of time. (SB 11.7.48)
The appearance and disappearance of the various phases of the moon occurs because of the watery nature of the moon globe and the reflection of the sun's rays. The moon itself does not change. Similarly the body changes its state because of invisible time. But the atma does not change. (Paramatma Sandarbha, ANUCCHEDA 21)
ajñānenāvrtam jñānam tena muhyanti jantavah
The living entities are bewildered by that ignorance and blame the Lord. (BG 5.15) (Paramatma Sandarbha anuccheda 22)
Our comment. The Vedanta kaustubha comments (2. 3 . 28-30): “There are contraction and expansion of even such an attribute which is peculiar to the individual soul, and eternal, in accordance with the declarations by the Lord Himself: '"Knowledge is enveloped by nescience. Thereby beings are deluded" '(Gita 5.15),' "In whom that nescience has been destroyed by knowledge, in them knowledge shines forth like the sun, O Bharata!" (Gita 5.16). During the waking state there is the "manifestation" "of this", i.e. of knowledge, which is "existent" indeed during the states of deep sleep and so on. Hence, the attribute of knowledge does last so long as the soul itself does; just as in youth there is the manifestation of virility and so on, which are existent indeed during childhood. By the phrase "and so on" the natural qualities of magnanimity, good conduct and the like are to be understood.”
Knowledge and all the natural qualities of the soul become contracted when it enters samsara. Not only consciousness or the ability for knowledge got withdrawn or was always withdrawn and no other qualities of the soul were ever manifest, as argued by the non-fall-theorists. The commentary had already stated "As in the case of the intelligent being." Greatness is said to belong to the Intelligent Being through His connection with great attributes as well, in accordance with the saying: 'Brahman' is one in whom there are great attributes. The Intelligent Being being great by nature as well, the example holds good only partially.
The translator footnotes here: I.e. the case of Brahman and the individual soul are not parallel in all respects, but in some respects only. The former is great by nature, as well as great by attributes; while the latter is atomic by nature yet great by attributes. Hence the two cases are parallel only in respect of the second point, and not of the first as evident.
And on sutra 2.3.48. The Vedanta kaustubha comment is: The term "and" indicates the contraction of the soul's knowledge during its state of bondage.
The same we read in the Govinda bhasya on this section. 2.3.26:
“In the text of the Prasna Upanisad as well as in that of the Brihadâranyaka we find a distinct statement made to the effect that the attributes of the soul also are eternal.
The Brihad-âranyaka Upanisad (IV, 5. 14) distinctly says that not only is the jîvâtman imperishable, but its qualities also are indestructible. It is not by contact with mind that the soul manifests its quality of intelligence, for both being partless there can be no contact between them. The intelligence of the soul becomes obscured when it turns its face away from the Lord, and it manifests when this obscuration is destroyed by turning its face towards the Lord. As we find in the following text of Saunaka:—
As by rubbing off-the dust from a gem the light is not created in the gem, but the light, which is the inherent attribute of the gem, manifests itself owing to the removal of the covering dust, similarly the intelligence of the soul manifests itself when the faults are removed. As by digging the earth, water, comes out of a well, but is not created by the act of digging, similarly the soul manifests its intelligence when the layers of ignorance concealing it are removed; just as the water of the spring bubbles up when the super-incumbent layers of earth are removed by digging. In fact when the obscuring faults are destroyed, the innate qualities of the soul manifest themselves; they are not created, because they are the eternal attributes of the jîva.”
Similarly Sri Madhvacarya comments here: Since the essence (i.e.) the very nature of the soul
consists only of wisdom, bliss and other qualities similar (in some degree) to those of Brahman.
Paingins' Sruti, "When released from misery, he becomes blessed; when rescued from ignorance he becomes wise; when cured of weakness, he becomes strong; he becomes eternal and fearless…
(then sutra 31:) “And on account of the fact that only the qualities essentially existing (in the thing) become manifest like virile power, etc., through the grace of the Lord, the (latter) scriptural statement holds true.”
Comment Madhvacarya: Just as the virile power which actually exists in the child becomes manifest in youth, so also blessedness and other qualities forming part of the soul's essence become manifest on his release, and with reference to this (fact) the scriptural statement proceeds.
The Ganpavana Sruti says, " Strength, blessedness, energy, endurance, unclouded wisdom, all essential attributes of the soul become manifest through the grace of the Almighty Lord.….The restoration to the purely essential existence results from the (light of) wisdom secured according to the fitness of the soul. (anubhasya 2.3.30-31)
Our comment. The nature of the soul becomes restored: bliss, strength, eternity, fearlessness, blessedness, energy, endurance, unclouded wisdom. This means Krishna-bhakti was there, developed, in the spiritual world. Then it got covered over.
(paramatma sandarbha continued) Another śakti (māyā) is described:
sayad ajayā tv ajām anuśayīta gunāmś cajusanThe jīva contacts matter by the influence of māyā, takes on similar form due to upādhis, and enjoys material objects. He thus experiences samsāra. (SB 10.87.38)
Śridhara’s commentary is as follows: Because the jīva (sah) embraces ignorance (ajām) caused by māyā (ajayā), it serves (jusān) the body and senses (gunān) or identifies with them as his self. After that (tad anu), with its qualities such as bliss (ānanda) hidden (apeta-bhāgah), it adopts similar qualities and attains (bhajati) samsāra (mrtum). (Paramatma Sandarbha anuccheda 23)
Comment: Maya influences and the jiva falls into material world.
The bewildered jīva is further described as follows:
tat-sañga-bhramśitaiśvaryam samsarantam kubhāryavatThe man in the story is the jīva who, like a householder with an unfaithful wife (intelligence), loses all his powers in her association. What is the use of insubstantial karmas performed by a person who does not know his destination? (SB 6.5.15)
Comment: The jīva had Krishna, but lost Krishna. The jīva loses all his powers in maya’s association. He had all qualities of a bhakta.
Jīva Gosvami continues: By association with māyā, represented by a woman (taysāh), the jīva loses all his powers, his capacity for inherent knowledge etc. and follows her (samsarantam)
seyam bhagavato māyā yan nayena virudhyate
īśvarasya vimuktasya kārpanyam uta bandhanam
This māyā, which cannot be understood by logic and which belongs to the Supreme Lord but is not his svarūpa, is the cause of deprivation and ignorance for the jīva who has the possibility of knowledge and liberation. (SB 3.7.9)
vipralabdho mahisyaivamsarva-prakrti-vañcitah
necchann anukaroty ajñahklaibyāt kridā-mrgo yathā
Specifically conditioned by the Queen, cheated of his own nature, the foolish King, though he did not want to, followed her like a pet animal because of falling under another’s control. (SB 4.25.62)
Comment: “cheated of his own nature” the king had his own fully developed nature, but then gave it up.
Then Jīva Gosvami comments: Puranjana, cheated by his queen, gave up (vañcitah) his nature of knowledge and other qualities (sarva-prakrti), not by his will, but by her will, and adopted her qualities (anukaroti) as his own. Though the jīva has a capacity for knowledge, his position of bondage is described in the following sūtra:
parābhidhyānāt tu tirohitam
tato hy asya bandha-viparyayau
Dreams disappear by the will of the Lord. This is not surprising since the Lord (through māyā) is also the cause of bondage and liberation of the jīva. (Brahma-sūtra 3.2.5) (Paramātmā Sandarbha anuccheda 26)
Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura also comments similarly on this SB 4.25.62: “Vipralabdhaḥ means “having specially attained a condition in this way.” Specially conditioned by the intelligence, at all times cheated of his nature of knowledge and bliss (sarva-prakṛti), giving up his nature, not wanting to because of his nature, but coming under the control of another (klaibyāt), assuming a different nature, he followed her. He imposed these qualities over the soul.”
Jāmātr mentions that the jīva is not just knowledge. The reason was given, but another reason is that the jīva is cid-ānandātmaka. It is knowledge as the opposite of insentience (jada-pratiyoga) and it is bliss and knowledge (cid-ānandātmaka) as the opposite of suffering (duhkha-pratiyoga). Its nature of knowing was already illustrated. Jīva accomplishes his nature as bliss by being the shelter of unconditional prema.
The jīva’s knowledge composed of bliss is not experienced second-hand “for you” as in the case of a reflection, but rather it is experienced for the self (aham-artha), since the jīva is ātmā or the self. This knowledge “for the self” is the sense of “I.” The word “I” indicates knowledge. The pure ātmā, though covered by prakrti, never becomes something else, since by the covering he merely identifies that self with the body. (Paramātmā Sandarbha anuccheda 29)
The jīva has a pure svarūpa (nitya-nirmalah). That was already illustrated in śuddho vicaste hy aviśuddha-kartuh: the jīva, though pure, becomes absorbed in the activities of the impure mind. (SB 5.11.12, explained at the beginning).
Even the jīva in his pure state is also a knower (jñātritva). That was illustrated also. Knowledge is eternal since it is the intrinsic quality of the eternal jīva. Therefore that knowledge is without change. (Paramātmā Sandarbha anuccheda 35 )
Comment: nitya-nirmalah pure means a completely manifested nature, else it would be handicapped, deficient.
Anuccheda 37 of Śri Paramātmā Sandarbha: Now the jīva as a dependent (śeṣatva) of Paramātmā will be discussed. The jīva is an amśa (śeṣah) of Paramātmā or is secondary to Paramātmā. That is the jīva’s nature (svabhāva). This is the case at all times sarvadā) even when the jīva is liberated. That is jīva’s svarūpa (svatah), not that Brahman when cut in pieces becomes jīva. By the Lord’s intrinsic, inconceivable śakti, the jīva is by nature dependent as an amśa, like a particle of a ray of light. This is the meaning of svatah.
Comment: Jīva is not particularly from Maha-Viṣṇu, he is in the spiritual world also energy of Paramātmā or Kṛṣṇa in general. tathā jñātrtva-kartrtva-bhoktrtva-nija-dharmakahparamātmaika-śesatva-svabhāvah sarvadā svatah. It is a knower, doer, and enjoyer by its very nature. By its nature it is subservient to Paramātmā at all times.
(continued Anuccheda 37) “Thus, though jiva is a sakti, it is different from the material sakti, since it is called tatastha. It is called tatastha because it cannot be classed as maya since it surpasses maya-sakti (being conscious). And it cannot be classed as Paramatma since Paramatma is not subject to jīva’s fault of being overcome by ignorance. Though it is the sakti of Paramatma, Paramatma is not tinged by jiva’s faults just as the sun is not covered though one ray of the sun can be covered by shadow. Narada-pancaratra describes the tatastha position: yat tatastham tu cid-rupam sva-samvedyad vinirgatam ranjitam guna-ragena sa jiva iti kathyate The jiva is called tatastha because it is a conscious form which, leaving its knowledge of itself, becomes tinged by the attraction to material gunas.”
Another translation: “The marginal potency, spiritual by nature, who emanates from My [saMvit] energy, and who becomes tainted by his attachment to the material modes, is called the jīva.”
Comment 1: “leaving its knowledge of itself”, it had jnana and lost it.
2. Eternal fault? – unprecedented. Our experience is different; SOMEBODY makes a fault and then suffers the consequences. Not also that God makes a fault and jiva has to suffer.
It is claimed that the fault is produced by ignorance from time without beginning, but that ignorance has no cause. This is like saying that the warmth of the fire which arises from its nature, is without any creating agent (no fire).
One is forced to accept this theory because one refuses facts which should not be given up– e.g. the law of cause and effect.
Thus this theory is tinged with impersonalism or voidism; things just are or happen but there is no cause.
Jiva Gosvami continues: Although the jIva is thus the Lord’s marginal potency, he is equivalent to an aMsa, as stated in the Supreme Lord’s own words, mamaivAMso jIva-loke jIva-bhUtaH sanAtanaH (Bg 15.7), and also in the words of the MahA-varAha PurANa,
svāṁśaś cātha vibhinnāṁśa
iti dvidhā śa iṣyate
aṁśino yat tu sāmarthyaṁ
yat-svarūpaṁ yathā sthitiḥ
tad eva nāṇu-mātro 'pi
bhedaṁ svāṁśāṁśinoḥ kvacit
vibhinnāṁśo 'lpa-śaktiḥ syāt
kiñcit sāmarthya-mātra-yuk
“The Lord is described in two ways, in terms of His plenary expansions and His separated expansions. Between the plenary expansion and His source of expansion there is never the slightest difference, according to Their capabilities, form or environment. The separated expansion possesses only minute potency, being endowed only to a small extent with the Lord’s capabilities.”
Comment: the minute potency, being endowed only to a small extent with the Lord’s capabilities becomes tainted by his attachment to the material modes. This is not nitya-patita, eternally fallen.
Text 19 of Anuccheda 37 of Sri Paramatma-sandarbha, Jiva Goswami says:
When he becomes free from ignorance and situated in his original constitutional position, the soul is said to be liberated. In this liberated condition his spiritual nature is like that of the Lord Himself.
The Sanskrit is:
Ata evavidya-vimoksa-purvaka-svarupavasthiti-
laksanayam muktau tal-linasya tat-sadharmyapattir bhavati
The word meanings are: ata eva—therefore; avidya—ignorance; vimoksa—liberation; purvaka—before; svarupa—own form; avasthiti—situation; laksanayam—in the nature; muktau—liberated; tal-linasya—merged into Him; tat-sadharmyapattih—attainment of His nature; bhavati—is.
The words purvaka-svarupavasthiti indicate that the original constitutional position was in fact experienced in the past, before the soul entered the conditioned state. The soul’s state after liberation is thus the same as the soul’s state before the soul became conditioned. This state is described as being of the same nature as that of the Lord, who displays various opulences. We can therefore conclude that the soul, before it became conditioned, was displaying opulences, just as it will after final liberation.
Then he quotes:
tasmāt priyatamah svātmā sarvesām
api dehinām tad-artham eva
sakalam jagad etac carācaram
Therefore, it is his own self that is most dear to every embodied living being, and it is simply for the satisfaction of this self that the whole material creation of moving and nonmoving entities exists. (SB 10.14.54)
Comment: There is a cause for the material world; the soul became a seeker of self-satisfaction.
As confirmed here: “We have deviated from our original position, therefore it is always a perplexity of our life ….Kṛṣṇa and I, both are living together within the heart as friends. Kṛṣṇa is so sincere friend that He's trying always to take me back again, back to home, back to Godhead…. I give him such intelligence so that he may come back to home, back to Godhead." Yena mām upayānti te. (Lecture, SB 1.02.17, Vrndavana)
Our comment. The original position does not mean a potential eternally buried. It was once, originally, actual. Krishna comes to revive this.
The individual jīva (in contrast to the totality of jīvas or samasti mentioned in the previous verse) is described:
ekasyaiva mamāmśasya jīvasyaiva mahā-mate bandho ’syāvidyayānādir vidyayā ca tathetarah
O intelligent Uddhava! The bondage of the jīva, who is my one part or tatastha-śakti, is created by avidyā and is without beginning. By vidyā, he achieves liberation which has a beginning. (SB 11.11.4) (Paramātma Sandarbha anuccheda 38)
Comment: Created by. The bondage had a beginning. The term “Beginningless” is figurative.
The same in Paramātmā Sandarbha anuccheda 54:
The first two functions of the nimitta form of māyā are described:
vidyāvidye mama tanū viddhy uddhava śarīrinām moksa-bandha-karī ādye māyayā me vinirmite
O Uddhava! Understand that vidyā and avidyā are my śaktis. They are created by my māyā, are without beginning, and create liberation and bondage for the living beings. (SB 11.11.3)
The commentary of Śrīdhara Svāmī says, “Since bondage and liberation are manifested (tanyete) by avidyā and vidyā, they are called tanū. They are śaktis made of my māyā (māyayā me vinirmite). Since they are functions of māyā they cause bondage and liberation.… ‘Since they are effects of māyā they should not be eternal or without beginning.’ No, they are without beginning (ādye). As long as I inspire avidyā, bondage appears (verb is understood). When I give vidyā, then liberation appears.”
Though it is said they are made (vinirmite), this means that they merely manifest by māyā whose actions are really infinite – in time – since they are actually without beginning.
The jīva is by nature in a liberated state. Bondage however appears just by ignorance.
Avidyā has two functions: covering (āvaranātmikā) and confusing (viksepātmikā). The covering function sits in the jīva and covers his natural knowledge. The confusing function sits in the jīva and produces false knowledge.
Jīva’s tatastha nature is clear from the statement sa ajayā tyajā anuśayīta: the jīva contacts matter by the influence of māyā, takes on similar form due to upādhis, and enjoys material objects. (SB 10.87.38) (Paramātma Sandarbha anuccheda 39)
Akhanditam (indivisible) indicates the jīva is a knower, doer and enjoyer intrinsically and eternally (jñātrtva-kartrtva- bhoktrtva-nija-dharmaka), since knowledge and other qualities are never separated from him (Paramātma Sandarbha anuccheda 45 quoting Jāmātr-muni commenting on SB 3.25.16-18)
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In Text 1 of Anuccheda 47 of Sri Paramatma-sandarbha, Jiva Goswami says:
Thus the Lord’s marginal potencies, who are called the individual spirit souls, are limitless in number. Still, they may be divided into two groups:
1. the souls who, from time immemorial, are favorable to the Lord (anadita eva bhagavad-unmukhah), and
2. the rebellious souls who, from time immemorial, are averse to the Supreme Lord (anadita eva bhagavat-paranmukhah). This is because one group is aware of the Lord’s glories and the other group is not aware of them.
(Another translation) Thus the jīvas or tatastha-śaktis are unlimited (ananta). There are two classes of these śaktis. One is favorable to the Lord without beginning (anāditah) since these jīvas have knowledge of the Lord by their nature. The other jīvas are averse to the Lord without beginning (anāditah) since they lack knowledge of the Lord by their nature. The first type of tatastha-śakti is endowed with the manifestation of the antarariga-śakti and consists of the eternal associates of the Lord like Garuda. These are described in Padma Purāna, Uttara-khanda, which is quoted in Bhagavat-sandarbha, starting with the phrase tripād-vibhūter lokās tu. These jīvas of the first type are tatastha in nature since they do not enter into the category of the Lord (īśvara): they are fixed as jīvas.
The other type, overcome by māyā which has gained access to the jīva because of jlva’s aversion to the Lord, is bom repeatedly in the material world. (Paramātma Sandarbha anuccheda 47)
Comment: jiva’s aversion is first, then second: māyā gains access, then third: he is born in the material world.
In text 3 of Anuccheda 47 of Sri Paramatma-sandarbha, Jiva Goswami says, after having described the eternally liberated souls in text 2:
aparas tu tat-paranmukhatva-dosena labdha-chidraya mayaya paribhutah samsari.
Comment. In this part of text 3, aparas tu means “but others.” Tat-paranmukhatva-dosena means “with the defect of being averse to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” Labdha-chidraya is “faulty.” Or Labdha “get” or “obtain.” Chidra means “fault,” and chidraya is the instrumental case. So labdha-chidraya means “by having obtained the state of being faulty.” Labdha is generally used when one obtains something that one did not previously have. This indicates the original state of the soul is “not faulty.” But by becoming averse to Krishna, the soul becomes faulty. Then what happens? Mayaya paribhutah samsari. Such souls, says Jiva Goswami, “become conquered (paribhutah) by the illusory potency maya and must live in the material world (samsari).”
Another translation: “The other type, overcome by maya which has gained access to the
jiva because of jiva’s aversion to the Lord, is born repeatedly in the material world.”
There is no anadi-patita vada here. The jiva ‘became’ overcome by maya. Maya gained access to the jiva. The jiva did not originally come from Brahman.
“Because he falls down from brahma-sayujya, he thinks that may be his origin, but he does not remember that before that even he was with Krishna… in His lila or sport.” (SPL, 1973)
Thus, a nitya-mukta became averse, then maya captured him.
Text 4 of Anuccheda 47 of Sri Paramatma-sandarbha. There Jiva Goswami cites Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.2.37,
bhayam dvitiyabhinivesatah syad
isad apetasya viparyayo ‘smritih
bhayam—fear; dvitiya—in something seeming to be other than the Lord; abhinivesatah—because of absorption; syat—it will arise; isat—from the Supreme Lord; apetasya—for one who has turned away; viparyayah—misidentification; asmritih—forgetfulness; tat—of the Lord; mayaya—by the illusory energy
“Fear arises when a living entity misidentifies himself as the material body because of absorption in the external, illusory energy of the Lord. When the living entity thus turns away from the Supreme Lord, he also forgets his own constitutional position as a servant of the Lord. This bewildering, fearful condition is effected by the potency for illusion, called maya.”
Another translation: “For the jiva averse to the Lord, there will be samsara consisting
of identity with body and lack of identity with the soul, because of his absorption in the material coverings on the soul, arising from the Lord’s maya.”
Another: “When the living entity is attracted by the material energy, which is separate from Krishna, he is overpowered by fear. Because he is separated from the Supreme Personality of Godhead by the material energy, his conception of life is reversed. In other words, instead of being the eternal servant of Krishna, he becomes Krishna’s competitor. This is called viparyayo ’smrtih.”
Another: “The first result of contact with maya (ignorance) was mistaken identity concerning the jiva’s true form. Forgetting his spiritual form, the jiva took on a material form, and through his self-identity fell into deep forgetfulness of his role as servant of the Lord. Maya bestowed two coverings--the gross and subtle bodies- over the spiritual form.”
Then he comments: Kāla, daiva, karma and svabhāva are the nimitta (guna-rūpa) portion and the rest are the upādāna (dravya-rūpa). The jiva endowed with kāla, daiva, karma and svabhāva is dual: both nimitta (being necessary for prakrti to transform) and upādāna (being a substance, unlike time, daiva etc,). A portion of the śakti of nimitta goesinto the upādāna class, just as the sense of “I” of the jlva’s svarūpa, transformed by ignorance (avidyā,) leads into the sense of “I” of jīva’s upādhi (ahañkāra). (Paramatma Sandarbha anuccheda 53)
Comment: The pure atma got transformed by ignorance to a baddha-jiva. This is a description of an event in time; there is a past, – pure atma–, a present, – conditioned soul –, and a future will come, – back to home, back to Godhead-.
pradhāna-ksetrajña-patir guneśah samsara-bandha-sthiti-moksa-hetuh
The Lord is the master of pradhāna and the jīva. He is the lord of the gunas. He is the cause of bondage in the world, living in the world and liberation from it. (Paramatmā Sandarbha anuccheda 55)
Thinking that you, the source (param) of everyone, are just the opposite (itaram), and that another jīva is the original ātmā, followers of sāñkhya and others search for the ātmā externally. Having gained a foothold by this, māyā produces the mistaken idea that the body is the ātmā. This is loss of all knowledge by ignorance. (Paramātma Sandarbha anuccheda 58)
asatyam apratistham tejagad āhur anīśvaram |
aparaspara-sambhūtam kim any at kāma-haitukam ||
They say the world is false, without a foundation, and without a creator. It arises by the innate properties of matter. It arises by lust alone. (BG 16.8)
The atheists are described in the Gītā. The world is false (asatyam) and cannot be designated (apratistham), since it is indescribable, being both existent and non-existent. The conception of God is false (aniśvaram) since the world arises from continuous, beginningless ignorance (jagat aparaspara-sambhūtam). Aparaspara means continuous action. It arises from desire alone like a dream. (Paramatmā Sandarbha anuccheda 71)
Comment: “The conception of God is false (aniśvaram) since the world arises from continuous, beginningless ignorance” How similar is this anadi-patita vada: god and soul didn’t cause this soul suffering in the prison. It is just eternal recurring avidya working on some souls. Some souls are not caught; they are eternally in the spiritual heaven.
Paramātmā, endowed with his antaranga-śakti and tatastha-śakti, is also different from the elements which are part of the bahirariga- śakti. (ANUCCHEDA 74)
Comment. Paramatma has all the saktis, not only jiva.
Text 2 of Anuccheda 72 of Sri Paramatma-sandarbha, Jiva Goswami cites Srimad-Bhagavatam 12.5.5:
“Just as when a pot is broken the sky [within the pot] would continue to be sky as before, similarly when the body is dead the jiva again attains to the absolute status.”
Srila Sridhara Svami explains this verse as follows:
“Just as before (yatha pura) means just as before the designation of ‘pot’ [i.e. before the sky in the pot became designated by the shape and covering of the pot as ‘the air in the pot’], so again when the pot is broken the sky that was within that pot would be sky alone [without the designation ‘pot’]. So as that is the case, similarly when the body is dead, that is when by knowledge of the truth the body is merged [back into matter].”
Comment. There is nothing in the commentaries of Vamsidhara, Viraraghava, Vijayadhvaja Tirtha, Sri Jiva Gosvami, Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura or the other commentators that in any way changes or even gives an indirect additional sense for what is obviously being stated here in Srimad-Bhagavatam: that the soul, once existing in a pure state, becomes covered by a material body and then returns to the same pure state as before. The words yatha pura, “just as before,” are significant, for if one wishes to claim that the soul originally comes from the brahma-jyotir or some other surrogate pure status that is not the abode of the Lord, then the soul will return to the same state.
The same fact we read in Sri bhasya 1.4.20:
“The souls spring from and again are merged in Brahman; such as 'As from a blazing fire sparks being like unto fire fly forth a thousandfold, thus are various beings brought forth from the Imperishable, and return thither also.” (Mu. Up. II, 1, 1).
In text 2 of Anuccheda 83 of Sri Paramatma-sandarbha, Jiva Goswami cites Srimad-Bhagavatam 12.4.33
ghano yadarka-prabhavo vidiryate
caksuh svarupam ravim iksate tada
yada hy ahankara upadhir atmano
jijnasaya nasyati tarhy anusmaret
The translation of SB 12.4.32 as introduction and 12.4.33 is:
Although a cloud is a product of the sun and is also made visible by the sun, it nevertheless creates darkness for the viewing eye, which is another partial expansion of the sun. Similarly, material false ego, a particular product of the Absolute Truth made visible by the Absolute Truth, obstructs the individual soul, another partial expansion of the Absolute Truth, from realizing the Absolute Truth. brahma-amsakasya—of the partial expansion of the Absolute Truth; atmanah—of the jiva soul When the cloud originally produced from the sun is torn apart, the eye can see the actual form of the sun. Similarly, when the spirit soul destroys his material covering of false ego by inquiring into the transcendental science, he regains his original spiritual awareness. (anusmaret—one gains his proper remembrance)
Comment: he regains his original spiritual awareness. (anusmaret—one gains his proper remembrance
anusmaran gerund remembering
anusmarati { anusmR } verb remember
anusmarati { anusmR } verb recollect
anusmaraNa n. recollection
anusmaraNa n. remembering
anusmaraNa n. repeated recollection)
This also fits the example of the cloud and the sun.
deśatah kālatoyo ’sāv avasthātah svato ’nyatah aviluptāvabodhātmā sa yujyetājayā katham
How can the jīva whose knowledge cannot be destroyed by place, time, condition, nature or other cause become associated with ignorance? (SB 3.7.5)
How does the jīva (asau) whose knowledge cannot be overcome by place, time, condition or nature become associated with ignorance (ajayā)? Knowledge cannot be reduced by distance (place) or defects of a place as in the case of the eye’s ability to see. Knowledge of the jīva is not destroyed by time, like lightning (which vanishes after a moment). It is not destroyed by circumstance, like memory. It cannot be destroyed by itself, like the illusion of silver in the shell. Knowledge cannot be reduced by other objects such as the pot since ātmā is the shelter of unimpeded knowledge inherent in its svarūpa. (Paramatma Sandarbha anuccheda 88)
Comment: “unimpeded knowledge inherent in its svarūpa”. Who can say the jiva is like an empty container since eternity and only in the human form of life can get filled up.
The same we read in the Vedanta-bhasyas:
"THE SOUL IS A KNOWER, FOR THAT VERY REASON."
Vedanta - parijata - saurabha: The soul, which is an ego, is a knower.
Vedanta-kaustubha: On the doubt, viz. whether the soul is non-sentient by nature, but possessed of the attribute of knowledge. Or mere consciousness, or knowledge by nature yet possessed of (the attribute of) being a knower,—the Vaisesikas and the like hold that it is non-sentient, yet possessed of the attribute of knowledge; while the Sankhyas and the rest hold that the soul is mere consciousness.
With regard to it we reply: "A knower", i.e. the individual soul is nothing but a knower, i.e. nothing but knowledge by nature, yet possessed of (the attribute of) being a knower. Why ? On the ground of the following scriptural texts, viz. 'Here this person becomes self-illuminating' (Brh. 4.3.9, 14), 'The person who is made of knowledge among the vital-breaths, who is the light in the heart' (Brh. 4.3.7), 'There is no annihilation of the knowledge of the knower, because of his imperishability (Brh. 4.3.30), ' " Whereby should one know the knower?" ' (Brh. 2.4.14; 4.5.15), 'This person simply knows', 'For he is the one who sees, touches, hears, smells, tastes, thinks, conceives, does, the intelligent self ' (Prasna 4.9) and so on.
The doctrine of the non-sentient soul, on the other hand, is to be rejected,—because then the attribute of knowledge by itself, being the effector of all practical transactions, will come to attain primacy; and hence the non-sentient substratum of the attribute (viz. the soul), being non-liable to salvation or bondage, virtue or vice, will come to be non -primary or useless like the nipple on the neck of a goat; and finally, because of its opposition to Scripture. The doctrine of mere consciousness, too, is to be rejected, because if consciousness be all-pervading, then there will be no perception of the pleasure and the like pertaining to the entire body; but if it be atomic in size, then there will be no experience of the pleasure and the like pertaining to hands, feet and so on.
Hence it is established that this soul, known through self- consciousness, is knowledge by nature and a knower. (Vedanta - parijata - saurabha and Vedanta-kaustubha on sutra. 2. 3. 18)
Our comment.
To think the soul is as an empty container before entering the material dimension, or is as eternally empty here, a mere potential – as per anadi-patita-vada - is similar to the view of the Vaisesikas: “Vaisesikas and the like hold that it is non-sentient, yet possessed of the attribute of knowledge.”
The siddhanta is: “who is made of knowledge”((Brh. 4.3.7), “'There is no annihilation of the knowledge of the knower, because of his imperishability” (Brh. 4.3.30)
It was already said in Vedanta kaustubha 2. 2. 28.: “the individual soul, having the stated marks, is eternal knowledge by nature and its attribute of knowledge, too, is indeed eternal like the ray of the sun, yet it has its knowledge veiled by nescience due to the beginningless maya ( i.e. prakrti or matter).”
The same in the Govinda bhasya 2.3.17: The jîvâtman is not knowledge alone, and though its form is that of intelligence, its essential nature is that of a knower. As says the Prasna Upanisad (IV. 9.),
“Verily he is the beholder, the toucher, the hearer, the smeller, the taster, the thinker, the determiner, the doer the Vijnanâtmâ, the Purusa. (He who knows this Purusa becomes established in the Highest Self).
The jîva is declared in the Smritis also to be the knower, having knowledge as its essential form. On the strength of the assertion " I slept soundly, I had no knowledge of any thing," we cannot say that the soul is mere intelligence, and that it becomes the knower, only when it comes in contact with buddhi-intelligence, for then you contradict all those texts which declare the soul to be the knower. Therefore it follows that the soul is both the knower and has knowledge for its essential nature.
Madhvacarya’s anubhasya on 2.3.17-18 also describes the eternal knowledge of the soul: By the text, " He who is the eternal of the eternal" (Kath. V. 13), the indestructibility has been said of the individual soul too. There is another text which says, " All these intelligent beings proceed (from their mother's womb)"; hence there is a conflict between the texts." To reconcile them, the Sutrakara-Vyasa, the writer of Vedanta- says: 18. The intelligent being (the soul) is indeed born from the Supreme Lord only, (as seen from the same scriptural passage).
Madhvacarya comments: The soul too is born from the same Supreme Lord, on the authority of scripture only. So says the Kasha- yana Sruti, " All these intelligent beings (souls) indeed as indestructible (things) enter into the perfect light of Para Brahman and as indestructible (things) are born from Him, and they never go to dissolution.”
Sribhasya-Sri Ramanujacarya on 2.3.18-19: By a thing being an effect we mean its being due to a substance passing over into some other state; and from this point of view the soul also is an effect. There is, however, the difference, that the 'other condition' which is represented by the soul is of a different kind from that which constitutes non-sentient things, such as ether and so on. The 'otherness' on which the soul depends consists in the contraction and expansion of intelligence; while the change on which the origination of ether and so on depends is a change of essential nature. And change of the latter kind is what we deny of the soul. ….Is the soul's essential nature constituted by mere intelligence as Sugata– the sunyavada buddha- and Kapila -nirisvara-vadi- hold; or is the soul as Kanâda thinks, essentially non-intelligent, comparable to a stone, while intelligence is merely an adventitious quality of it; or is it essentially a knowing subject?--The soul is mere intelligence, the Pûrvapakshin maintains; for the reason that Scripture declares it to be so. For in the antaryâmin- brâhmana the clause which in the Mâdhyandina-text runs as follows, 'he who abides in the self,' is in the text of the Kânvas represented by the clause 'he who abides in knowledge.' Similarly the text 'knowledge performs the sacrifice and all sacred acts' (Taitt. Up. II, 5, I) shows that it is knowledge only which is the true nature of the active self. And Smriti texts convey the same view, as e.g. 'it in reality is of the nature of absolutely spotless intelligence.' A second Pûrvapakshin denies the truth of this view. If, he says, we assume that the self's essential nature consists either in mere knowledge or in its being a knowing subject, it follows that as the self is omnipresent there must be consciousness at all places and at all times. On that doctrine we, further, could not account for the use of the instruments of cognition (i.e. the sense-organs, etc.); nor for the fact that in the states of deep sleep, swoon and so on, the self although present is not observed to be conscious, while on the other hand consciousness is seen to arise as soon as the conditions of the waking state are realised. We therefore conclude that neither intelligence or consciousness, nor being a knowing agent, constitutes the essence of the soul, but that consciousness is a mere adventitious or occasional attribute. And the omnipresence of the self must needs be admitted since its effects are perceived everywhere. Nor is there any valid reason for holding that the self moves to any place; for as it is assumed to be present everywhere the actual accomplishment of effects (at certain places only) may be attributed to the moving of the body only.--Scripture also directly declares that in the state of deep sleep there is no consciousness, 'I do not indeed at the present moment know myself, so as to be able to say "that am I," nor do I know those beings.' Similarly Scripture declares the absence of consciousness in the state of final release, 'when he has departed there is no consciousness' (Bri. Up. II, 4, 12); where the self is spoken of as having knowledge for its essential nature, the meaning only is that knowledge constitutes its specific quality, and the expression is therefore not to be urged in its literal sense.
Against all this the Sûtra declares 'for this very reason a knower.' This self is essentially a knower, a knowing subject; not either mere knowledge or of non-sentient nature.--Why?--'For this very reason,' i.e. on account of Scripture itself. 'For this reason' refers back to the 'on account of Scripture' in the preceding Sûtra. For in the Chândogya, where the condition of the released and the non-released soul is described, the text says 'He who knows, let me smell this, he is the self--with the mind seeing those pleasures he rejoices-the devas who are in the world of Brahman--whose desires are true, whose purposes are true-- not remembering the body into which he was born' (Ch. Up. VIII, 12, 4-5; 1, 5; 12, 3). And elsewhere 'The seer does not see death' (Ch. Up. VII, 26, 2). Similarly we read in the Vâjasaneyaka, in reply to the question 'Who is that self?'--'He who is within the heart, surrounded by the Prânas, the person of light, consisting of knowledge' (Bri. Up. IV, 3, 7); 'By what should one know the knower?' (Bri. Up. IV, 5, 15); 'That person knows.' And 'for he is the knower, the hearer, the smeller, the taster, the perceiver, the thinker, the agent--he the person whose self is knowledge'; and 'thus these sixteen parts of that seer' (Pra. Up. IV, 9; VI, 5). Being a cognizing subject, being with knowledge, constitutes the essential nature of the self.
(Paramatma Sandarbha continued)
bhagavān eka evaisa sarva-ksetresv avasthitah amusya durbhagatvam vā kleśo vā karmabhih kutah
The Lord is situated in all bodies. Why does the jīva then suffer from ignorance and become afflicted by karmas? (SB 3.7.6)
The one Lord, Paramātmā is also situated in all bodies of all jīvas. Then why should the jīva (amusya) lose his inherent knowledge (durbhagatvam) and suffer from karma?
(Paramatma Sandarbha anuccheda 89)
By māyā, the jīva (vimuktasya) who has the ability to realize his svarūpa (īśvarasya), has his knowledge of ātmā covered (kārpanyam) and enters the net of gunas previously shown (bandhanam). It is said tat-sañga-bhrarhśitaiśvaryam: the jīva in association with māyā loses all his powers. (SB 6.5.15)….Because of māyā (yat), though it is without purpose in past, present and future (arthena vinā api), the jīva forgets his identity and thinks he is something else (ātmā-viparyayah). (Paramatma Sandarbha anuccheda 90)
Text 2 of Anuccheda 91 gives the Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.7.10 text:
yad arthena vinamusya
pumsa atma-viparyayah
pratiyata upadrastuh
sva-siras-chedanadibhih
“The living entity is in distress regarding his self-identity. He has no factual background, like a man who dreams that he sees his head cut off.”
Jiva Gosvami comments: Because of maya (yat), though it is without purpose in past, present and future (arthena vina api), the jiva forgets his identity and thinks he is something else (atma-viparyayah). Because of maya, the jiva’s loss of knowledge and bliss makes its appearance. This is the meaning. In a dream it is perceived by the jiva (upadrastuh) that his head is cut off, which is impossible. His head has not been cut off and no one has seen this take place. But the Lord’s maya, accomplishing this, imposes this display on the jiva. Atma-viparyayah indicates that the conditioned soul has forgotten his true identity.
Another translation of this verse. “Because of maya, the jiva’s loss of knowledge and bliss makes its appearance without cause or purpose. The loss is illusory, just the seer of a dream experiencing his head being cut off is illusory.”
Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura comments. The jiva situated behind the Lord with beginningless aversion loses knowledge by beginningless ignorance which is also situated behind the Lord. There is no cause and no purpose for the jiva doing this. This is the nature of tamas that it eclipses the power of the jiva, who has only small power.
Because of maya, the loss of knowledge and bliss (atma-viparyayah) of the jiva (pumsah) appears to be without cause or goal (arthena). Medini says that artha means object of the senses, wealth, cause, thing, meaning of a word, prevention and goal. An example is given. The seer of a dream (drashtuh), near himself (upa), sees his head is cut off. Though his head is intact, in the dream state he experiences that his head is gone. Though the jiva does not actually have a destruction of knowledge and bliss, in a state of ignorance he perceives this destruction. The brilliant luster of gold and silver is not lost by darkness, but is only covered. Just as a very brilliant ruby destroys even darkness, the life of the devotee destroys even ignorance.
Our comment: The pure spiritual body, his true identity, sat-cit-ananda-vigraha was eternally, completely there, before the forgetfulness.
“No cause” means the cause is in the spiritual world. And ‘no purpose’ means no substance but shadow.
Though the jīva is pure, he takes on the quality of upādhis because of the upādhis…. the qualities of the material upādhis appear on the pure ātmā who becomes the seer—the ātmā in a covered state (drastuh)…
The ātmā is pure but he sees himself as a material body by identification. It is said:
nrtyato gāyatah paśyan yathaivānukaroti tān evam buddhi-gunān paśyann anīho ’py anukāryate
Just as one may imitate persons whom one sees dancing and singing, similarly the soul, although never the doer of material activities, is thus forced to imitate the qualities of the intelligence. (SB 11.22.53)
It is also said śuddho vicaste hy aviśuddha-kartuh: the pure jlva becomes absorbed in the actions of the conditioned soul. (SB 5.11.12) (Paramatma Sandarbha anuccheda 92)
Comment: Pure means Krishna conscious. Brahman realization is not complete, it is without cit and ananda. Eternal existence in maya is also excluded; the jiva was never pure in that idea and does not take on the quality of upadhi but has this eternally.
The word kuhaka means “cheating.” Kuhaka refers to the power of māyā since it covers and bewilders the svarūpa of the jīva. (Paramatma Sandarbha anuccheda 105)
Comment: The svarupa is there, and got covered over.
yo ’syotpreksaka ādi-madhya-nidhane yo ’vyakta-jiveśvaro yah srstvedam anupraviśya rsinā cakrepurah śāsti tāh yam sampadyajahāty ajām anuśayī suptah kulāyam yathā tarn kaivalya-nirasta-yonim abhayam dhyāyed ajasrath harim
He is the Lord who eternally watches over this universe, before, during and after its manifestation. He is the master of both the unmanifest material energy and the spirit soul. After sending forth the creation he enters within it, accompanying each living entity. There he creates the material bodies and then remains as their regulator. By surrendering to him, the jīva covered with upādhis can escape the embrace of illusion, just as a dreaming person forgets his own body. One who wants liberation from fear should constantly meditate upon this Lord, who destroys māyā by his pure svarūpa and gives freedom from fear. (SB 10.87.50) (Paramātma Sandarbha anuccheda 105)
Comment: “just as a dreaming person forgets his own body” we were awake in our original spiritual body. Then we fell asleep on the lap of maha-maya, now wake up and return back to awakened life.
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada says the same:” God is the original father. Therefore, we have got intimate connection with Krishna. So we have forgotten it, what is Krishna, what is my connection with Him, what is the aim of life. Krishna consciousness is already there in everyone’s core of heart, but due to one’s material conditional life, he has forgotten it. So this process of chanting Hare Krishna mahâ-mantra means to revive that consciousness. It is already there…Artificially nobody can chant and dance for hours together. That means the awakening of Krishna consciousness. It was there; by the bona fide process, it is now awakened.
nitya-siddha Krishna-bhakti sadhya kabhu naya
sravanâdi-suddha-citte karaye udaya
(CC Madhya 22.107)”
Same in: “The Krishna consciousness is dormant in everyone’s heart. So when he comes in contact with devotees, that is awakened.” (Philadelphia - July 13, 1975)
Or: “Let them come to Krishna and go back to home, back to Krishna. This is our movement—the greatest beneficial movement. We don’t want to keep these people in ignorance. They are in illusion, ignorance. So our business is to enlighten him. Kota nidrâ jâo mâyâ-pisâcîra: “You are sleeping. Get up, take this opportunity and be Krishna conscious. Go back to home.” (Tokyo - January 28, 1975)
(He quotes:
“jīv jāgo, jīv jāgo, gauracānda bole
kota nidrā jāo māyā-piśācīra kole
Lord Gaurānga is calling, “Wake up, sleeping souls! Wake up, sleeping souls! How long will you sleep in the lap of the witch called Maya?” (Aruṇodaya Kīrtana-II, Jīv Jāgo from Gītāvalī, “Wake Up Sleeping Souls!” By Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura)
Bhagavat Sandarbha
Jīva-māyā is so called because its aim is the jiva (his bewilderment), and its māyā arises from the functions of vidyā and avidyā of the Lord’s nimitta-śakti. Taking support of this jīva-māyā, at the beginning of creation, Brahmā manifested avidyā.
vidyāvidye mama tanū viddhy uddhava śariñnām moksa-bandha-kañ ādye may ay ā me vinirmite
vidyā—knowledge; avidye—and ignorance; mama—My; tanū—manifested energies; viddhi—please understand; uddhava—O Uddhava; śarīriṇām—of the embodied living entities; mokṣa—liberation; bandha—bondage; karī—causing; ādye—original, eternal; māyayā—by the potency; me—My; vinirmite—produced.
O Uddhava! Understand that vidyā and avidyā are my śaktis. They are created by my māyā, are without beginning, and create liberation and bondage for the living beings. (SB 11.11.3) (Anuccheda 16 Bhagavat Sandarbha)
Comment: Create/produce bondage neutralizes and makes non-literal the wording “without beginning”.
“sa tvahi hi nitya-vijitātma-gunah sva-dhāmnā kālovaśī-krta-visrjya-visarga-śaktih cakre visrstam ajayeśvara sodaśāre nispīdyamānam upakarsa vibho prapannam
O Lord! O supreme power! You conquer the material gunas contained in the jīva’s intelligence at all times by your svarūpa- śakti. You are time which agitates the gunas. You destroy ignorance in the subtle body. Please bring near you that person who has been thrown in the wheel in the wheel of sixteen spokes by ignorance and is being squeezed like a piece of sugar cane. (SB 7.9.22)” (Anuccheda 19 Bhagavat Sandarbha)
Comment: Thrown in jail, from outside of the jail.
Anuccheda 20 ||
karoti visva-sthiti-samyamodayam
yasyepsitam nepsitam iksitur gunaih
maya yathayo bhramate tad-asrayam
gravno namas te guna-karma-saksine
By your glance, you carry out creation, maintenance and destruction of the universe by māyā, though it is not desired by you, but only by the jīva... (SB 5.18.38)
The commentary-Sridhara swami- says, “The Lord does not desire the creation for himself (iksituh), but he desires it for the jīvas. He does not desire it at all, since prakrti is not suitable object for his glance. He does not desire creation for himself.”
…By māyā (guṇaiḥ) the Lord carries out the creation, maintenance and destruction of the universe, though not desired for himself, just by applying his glance (īkṣituḥ), but desired by the jīvas. Hari desires this universe to be created for the benefit of the living entities (jivas) and not for the benefit of Himself. (Commentary by Vijayadhvaja Tirtha)
The universe is desired by You for the sake of the jivas and not for Yourself. (Commentary by Visvanâtha Cakravarti)
You create the world for those that want it and for the liberation for those who aspire for it. You do not create for Your own sake. You are the perceiver of the qualities and actions of all jivas. Obeisances to You. (Commentary by Śukadeva)
This world is desired by God for the sake of jivas and not for His own sake. For those who want to enjoy, the Lord creates the world to give them the opportunity to do so while those aspiring for liberation, can be liberated. (Commentary by Śri Giridhara Lâla)
Comment: The jail is for the rebel jivas. This refutes the theory that the soul is eternally in maya. And that the creation is an eternal lila of some creator, for his sweet will and gratification.
In text 1 of Anuccheda 22 of Sri Bhagavat-sandarbha, Jiva Goswami cites SB 10.87.38
sa yad ajaya tv ajam anusayita gunams ca jushan
bhajati sarupatam tad anu mrityum apeta-bhagah
tvam uta jahasi tam ahir iva tvacam atta-bhago
mahasi mahiyase ‘shta-gunite ‘parimeya-bhagah
sah—he (the individual living entity); yat—because; ajaya—by the influence of the material energy; tu—but; ajam—that material energy; anusayita—lies down next to; gunan—her qualities; ca—and; jushan—assuming; bhajati—he takes on; sa-rupatam—forms resembling (the qualities of nature); tat-anu—following that; mrityum—death; apeta—deprived; bhagah—of his assets; tvam—You; uta—on the other hand; jahasi—leave aside; tam—her (the material energy); ahih—a snake; iva—as if; tvacam—its (old, discarded) skin; atta-bhagah—endowed with all assets; mahasi—in Your spiritual powers; mahiyase—You are glorified; ashta-gunite—eightfold; aparimeya—unlimited; bhagah—whose greatness.
The illusory material nature attracts the minute living entity to embrace her, and as a result he assumes forms composed of her qualities. Subsequently, he loses all his spiritual qualities and must undergo repeated deaths. You, however, avoid the material energy in the same way that a snake abandons its old skin. Glorious in Your possession of eight mystic perfections, You enjoy unlimited opulences. (Sarva-samvadini of Sri Jiva Gosvami)
Comment: According to the dictionary:
apeta adj. having retired from
apeta adj. free from
apeta adj. escaped
apeta adj. departed
apeta adj. Gone.
The commentary of Sridhara Swami (partly):
In this verse the word sah means “the individual spirit soul.” Yat means “because.” ajaya means “by the material energy maya,” ajam means “ignorance,” anusayita means “embraces,” gunams ca means “the material body and senses,” jusan means “serving, or considering the material body as the self,” svarupatam jusan apeta-bhagah means “absorbed in the material energy, the individual soul becomes bereft of his natural spiritual opulences, such as bliss and knowledge,” mrtyum means “the material realm of birth and death,” [and] bhajati means “attains.”
Another translation:
Because ([yat = yasmAt]) he, the [jIva,] however (in spite of the fact that the material world is unreal), by the influence of MAyA ([ajayA = mAyayA]), embraces ([anusayIta = A`linget]) ignorance ([ajAm = avidyAm]), thus he comes to serve ([juSan = sevamAnam]) her qualities, namely the body and senses, presumes them to be his own self ([A`tmatayAdhyasan]), subsequently ([tad anu = ,,tad-anantaram]) also assumes similarity to them, the acquirement of their nature ([sa-rUpatAm = tad-dharma-yogam]), becomes such that his qualities of happiness and so on are covered over, and obtains ([bhajati = prApnoti]) death. This, the implication is, is the subject matter of the [karma-kANDa]. You, on the other hand ([tvam uta = tvaM tu]), leave aside that MAyA ([ajAm = mAyAm]).
Another translation of this commentary – extended:
Because (yat) the jiva embraces avidya (ajam) through maya, he serves the gunas, body and senses and mistakes them for himself. After that (anu) he takes on similar qualities (sarupatam) and, with qualities like bliss covered (apeta-bhagah), attains samsara (mrtyum). You however reject that maya. Maya is situated in me. How do I give it up? Just as a snake does not think its skin to be himself just by thinking of its good qualities, so you give up maya, because you do not identify it as yourself. Your profusion of continuous bliss and knowledge is not produced by maya. You are indifferent to it, because you have your eternal powers (atta-bhagah). You are glorious with your eight mystic powers. The powers are immeasurable (aparimeya-bhagah). Your eight qualities of power are not limited by time and place like the powers of others. They are unlimited because they are related to your complete svarupa.
Commentary of Sri Visvanatha: Although the jiva is pure spirit, qualitatively equal with God, he becomes degraded under the power of material illusion, maya.
Entranced by the allurements of Māyā, the pure jiva soul becomes covered by ignorance and the qualities of material nature. Thus tainted by material designations, he accepts (bhajati) bodies…
Subsequently (tad anu), his qualities like bliss become covered, and he undergoes repeated birth and death (mrtyum) in this world.
Lord Narayana said, “But since I, the Supreme Soul, share the same spiritual nature as the individual spiritual soul (jiva), do I also get covered by ignorance?”
Srutis: “No, this can never happen! The jiva is an infinitesimal particle of consciousness, whereas You are the vast repository of consciousness. Smoke may engulf the glow of a small molten sphere of gold, brass or copper, but it can never cover the vast light of the sun.”
Commentary BBT: Although the jiva is pure spirit, qualitatively equal with the Supreme Lord, he is prone to being degraded by embracing the ignorance of material illusion. When he becomes entranced by the allurements of Maya, he accepts bodies and senses that are designed to let him indulge in forgetfulness.
Our commentary: Visvanatha makes Lord Narayana fearfully ask: “I can also fall.” The srutis reassure “no Lord, only jivas fall down, You can not and will not at any time become fallen in the future.” The distinction between You and the conditioned soul is that You maintain Your natural opulences, known as sad-aisvarya, asta-siddhi, and asta-guna. But the soul loses all his spiritual qualities. Therefore the original position was not eternally in Brahman, since in Brahman all qualities are contracted. Here it is said that the soul had its spiritual consciousness, qualities etc. manifest, but lost its sat cit ananda vigrahah etc. 50 qualities (see: Nectar of devotion 2.1.23-29). These qualities are not manifest in Brahman. No Brahman-fall here; this only came from a misunderstanding of Bhaktivinoda’s Jaiva Dharma. This book describes the regular emanation of souls from Maha-Visnu, every 622.080 trillion years, a second chance for the soul, falling from Krishna lila, at the border of matter and spirit, and the nature of the soul as always marginal; able to go from spirit to matter and matter to spirit. The souls in the brahmayjoti are originally from Krishna’s sports, fell into maya, got elevated by impersonal meditation to the Brahman effulgence and will fall from there into maya again, to surrender to Krishna after many many births. (Bhagavad-Gita 7.19)
This also refutes the anadi or nitya-patita vada, the philosophy that all souls in the material world are since time eternal, without beginning, in the material world. That all the other souls are eternally in the spiritual world and that 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. Thye fault in this idea is that they wrongly think that the material world is unlimited. This is not so; it is a limited area, so this world should be empty of souls by now since liberation is going on since nonbeginning time. They also teach that the souls are in the material world for no reason. The spiritual world alone would be perfect and sufficient. All the souls could be in ecstatic love in the spiritual world, but somehow matter is there eternally and needs some residents. Somehow the mistaken creation of the maya is an eternal fact. Even Krishna doesn’t want it, but it is eternally designed like that, so He cannot change the dogma. Neither a jiva nor Bhagavan have done anything for a jiva to be in Vaikuntha, in Brahmajyoti or in the material world. So neither a jiva nor Bhagavan is to be blamed or praised for it. Some things are the way they are. So they say.
(More comment on SB 10.87.38) :
Sri Jiva Gosvami makes Ajita say: “Māyā is a śakti with the functions of vidyā and avidyā. By destroying māyā I will destroy vidyā also.” And then answers: “Māyā has accepted the quality of vidyā, a cause of remembering you, with the fault of avidyā, the cause of jīva forgetting ātmā. By her covering, māyā creates the fault of avidyā and sometimes, somewhere, somehow, māyā leaves some jīva. There is thus fault in māyā’s quality of vidyā whose nature is making māyā leave the jīva (since māyā has covered the jīva in the first place.)”
Comment: “avidyā, the cause of jīva forgetting ātmā.” The jiva was Krishna conscious. Then gave up Krishna consciousness. Then again “remembering you”, becomes again Krishna conscious.
Sri Jiva Gosvami continues, now making Ajita – Lord Narayana - say: “By destroying māyā, the śakti of the jiva, an upadhi of māyā, will also be destroyed.” The answer is the same. By the svarūpa-śakti , the complete śakti which gives happiness to the jīvas will appear. In this way the śrutis indicate the tatastha nature of the jiva.
Comment: Tatastha-marginal; from Syama to shame, but then back to Syama.
In text 5 of Anuccheda 22, Jiva Goswami cites Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.26.5, which says that the conditioned souls are “illusioned by the knowledge-covering feature of the illusory energy.”
gunair vicitrah srijatim
sa-rupah prakritim prajah
vilokya mumuhe sadyah
sa iha jnana-guhaya
gunaih—by the threefold modes; vicitrah—variegated; srijatim—creating; sa-rupah—with forms; prakritim—material nature; prajah—living entities; vilokya—having seen; mumuhe—was illusioned; sadyah—at once; sah—the living entity; iha—in this world; jnana-guhaya—by the knowledge-covering feature.
Divided into varieties by her threefold modes, material nature creates the forms of the living entities, and the living entities, seeing this, are illusioned by the knowledge—covering feature of the illusory energy.
BBT Purport: It is stated in the previous verse that the material energy was accepted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead in order that He might exhibit pastimes for the living entities who wanted to enjoy and lord it over the material energy. (The Lord accepts the material energy for His material pastimes in creation, maintenance and dissolution. SB 3.26.4 p.) This world was created through the material energy of the Lord for the so-called enjoyment of such living entities. Why this material world was created for the sufferings of the conditioned souls is a very intricate question. There is a hint in the previous verse in the word lilaya, which means “for the pastimes of the Lord.” The Lord wants to rectify the enjoying temperament of the conditioned souls. It is stated in Bhagavad-gita that no one is the enjoyer but the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This material energy is created, therefore, for anyone who pretends to enjoy. An example can be cited here that there is no necessity for the government’s creation of a separate police department, but because it is a fact that some of the citizens will not accept the state laws, a department to deal with criminals is necessary. There is no necessity, but at the same time there is a necessity. Similarly, there was no necessity to create this material world…We say that they have been conditioned from time immemorial because no one can trace out when the living entity, the part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, became rebellious against the supremacy of the Lord.
It is a fact that there are two classes of men—those who are obedient to the laws of the Supreme Lord and those who are atheists or agnostics, who do not accept the existence of God and who want to create their own laws. They want to establish that everyone can create his own laws or his own religious path. Without tracing out the beginning of the existence of these two classes, we can take it for granted that some of the living entities revolted against the laws of the Lord…Covered by the material body, the spiritual identity is lost, and therefore the word mumuhe is used here, indicating that they have forgotten their own spiritual identity. This forgetfulness of spiritual identity is present in the jivas, or souls, who are conditioned, being subject to be covered by the energy of material nature. Jnana-guhaya is another word used. Guha means “covering.” Because the knowledge of the minute conditioned souls is covered, they are exhibited in so many species of life…Because they are forgetful of their spiritual identities, they think the material bodies to be themselves. To the conditioned soul, “me” means the material body. This is called moha, or bewilderment.
In text 7, Jiva Goswami cites Bhagavad-gita 5.15: “Embodied beings are bewildered, however, because of the ignorance that covers their true knowledge.”
nadatte kasyacit papam / na caiva sukrtam vibhuh
ajnanenavrtam jnanam / tena muhyanti jantavah
jnanena tu tad ajnanam / yesam nasitam atmanah
tesam aditya-vaj jnanam / prakasayati tat param
“Nor does the Supreme Lord assume anyone’s sinful or pious activities. Embodied beings, however, are bewildered because of the ignorance which covers their real knowledge. When, however, one is enlightened with the knowledge by which nescience is destroyed, then his knowledge reveals everything, as the sun lights up everything in the daytime.”
Sri Ramanuja’s commentary: “All conceptions of friend and foe are material designations caused by vasana which is physical instincts created from material association…The atma is transcendental to material nature...How then is it that the atma is thus shrouded by this vasana. Lord Krishna reveals that it is because of ignorance. It is ignorance which shrouds and obscures spiritual knowledge. Ignorance and nescience is that which is opposed to spiritual knowledge and wisdom. By the shrouding of ignorance...the consciousness of the atma becomes obscured and the intelligence compromised, allowing the living entity to enter the perilous predicament of believing they are the enjoyer…
Although the intelligence may be shrouded by the veil of ignorance still it has been seen that there are those whose consciousness becomes awakened upon receiving Vedic knowledge.”
Our comment on this: knowledge of Krishna was present, became shrouded, compromised, obscured and clouded, then becomes uncovered and awakened.
Another translation. Knowledge is enveloped by that which is opposed to knowledge.
Living beings are deluded by this (enemy of knowledge).
(BG 5.15-16) RAMANUJA-BHASHYA:
His knowledge is enveloped, that is, contracted by a series o f previous karmas which are opposed to knowledge—contracted so that he might become fit o experience their own results. By this karma, which is in the form of a veil over knowledge, union with the bodies of the gods etc. And the delusion which is in the form of mistaking such bodies for the self are produced….this enemy of knowledge which conceals this knowledge and which is in the form of the accumulation of countless karmas flowing from time immemorial, is destroyed— in the case of these (souls), this knowledge which belongs to their essential nature, which is unlimited and uncontracted, illuminates everything as it is in itself... Knowledge is taught to be an attribute inseparable from the essential nature of the self, because of the difference (between the self and knowledge)(this is to stress the point that the self even in the pure state is Knower and not mere knowledge.) pointed out in the statement, “ Knowledge, in their case(illuminates) like the sun.” Moreover, by the example of the sun the position of the knower and knowledge as similar to that of light and the luminous object is indicated.(Sri Raminuja holds that the self, while being know ledge as substance, has also attributive knowledge. Hence the analogy with the sun which is light as substance and also has light as its attribute.) Therefore, indeed the contraction of knowledge by karma in the state o f samsara and (its) expansion in the state o f moksha is proper and appropriate.
The self, while being knowledge as substance, has also Knowledge as an attribute. It is dharmi-bhūta-jnana (consciousness characterised by the characteristic of awareness) and its light of knowledge is dharma-bhuta-jnana (the characteristic of awareness).
He had already stated in his BHASHYA on BG 3. 39-40-41:
39. The knowledge (of the self) of the sentient is enveloped by this eternal enemy, O Arjuna (son of Kunti), which is in the form of desire, is difficult to gratify and is insatiable.
RAMANUJA -BHASHYA: The knowledge having the self for its subject, of this embodied person whose nature is knowledge, is concealed by this eternal enemy which is in the form of desire, which produces infatuation for sense-objects…
40. The senses, the mind and the intellect are declared to be its instruments of governance. By these it leads astray the embodied soul after concealing his Knowledge.
41. Therefore, O best of the Bharatas, (Arjuna), kill this sinful thing that destroys (both) the knowledge (of the self) and the discrimination (relating thereto), after restraining the senses at the (very) beginning.
RAMANUJA -BHASHYA: ...you, who are devoted to the activities of the senses, on account of being in contact with the prakriti, should, at the beginning, that is, at the very beginning of the practice of the means for the attainment of moksha restrain the senses in Karma-yoga which is adapted to the activities of the senses. And then you should kill, that is, destroy this sinful enemy, which is in the form of desire and which is the destroyer of knowledge and discrimination, that is, of knowledge relating to the real nature of the self and of the discrimination relating thereto.
The same Sri Ramanuja states in chapter 6, verse 27. “The words santa-rajasam means the quality of rajas or passion has become santa or peaceful. Hence one becomes imbued with the qualities of the Brahman or the spiritual substratum pervading all existence and which also refers to the atma and re-establishes one into their true essence of spiritual splendor. To such a yogi comes atma tattva or realization of the soul and exquisite and phenomenal transcendental felicity. The word used by Lord Krishna hi meaning verily, is an indeclinable particle which gives a reason denoting that by the reason of atma tattva being essentially blissful the yogi becomes blissful as well.”
Our comment: “Re- establishes one into their true ëssence of spiritual splendour.” One was once in one’s true essence of spiritual splendour. By yoga one becomes re-established in the position one lost.”
He who being established in the state of yoga in oneness (with Me) on account of (his self) being solely of the form of uncontracted knowledge, worships Me firmly by giving up differences based on the prakrti…. He who—on account of the similarity between his own self and other selves, arising from their being solely of the form of uncontracted knowledge—sees the happiness in the form of the sons etc., which exists everywhere in his own case and in that of others, and the misery in the form of the death of those (sons) and similar things (existing everywhere in his own case and in that of others), as being the same on account of equality in lack of relationship, that is, he who sees such things as the birth and death of his own sons as being equal to such things as the birth and death of the sons of others. (RAMANUJA –BHASHYA, BG 6.31-32)
Lord Krishna is the Supreme omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent Lord of all creation and that He manifests His original form that appears to be like all of humanity due to magnanimous feelings of infinite compassion in order for all living entities to be able to have access to Him……Lord Krishna's eternal, transcendental, immutable and supreme nature disguised in human form as a way to display His phenomenal lilas or divine pastimes by which to inspire and delight all of humanity as an act of unlimited mercy and love for all.
(Ramanuja's Commentary chapter 9, verse 11 of the Srimad Bhagavad-Gita.)
Comment. According to the fallacious ‘eternally bound theory’, the Lord first put them without reason in the maya and now comes to save them. Why He put them here in the first place– better have them all since eternity in the spiritual world.
The Chandogya Upanisad VIII.III.IV beginning param jyotir upasampadya svena rupena states: Reaching unto the supernal, transcendental, divine light one resurrects themselves into their own essential spiritual nature.
(Ramanuja's Commentary chapter 10, verse 12, 13 of the Srimad Bhagavad-Gita.)
The selves being solely of the nature of knowledge (Ramanuja - bhashya BG 12.5)
The brahman is that which is associated w ith th equality of (infinite) extensiveness, that is, it is a thing different from such things as the body, and free by itself of being conditioned by the body and such other things: thus, it means the principle (of the individual self) which cognises the kshetra. For it is revealed in the sruti “He (i.e., the atomic individual self) too becomes fit for infinity (Svet. Up. V, 9), Its being conditioned by the body is brought about by its karma. This infinity is only in relation to one emancipated from the bonds of karma. (RAMANUJA-BHASHYA BG 13.12)
It is said to be other than matter (or tamas): The word tamas describes the prakriti in its subtle state. The meaning is that it (the self) is said to be other than (or superior to) the Prakrti. Hence it is to be known as knowledge, that is, to be known as being solely of the form of knowledge. (RAMANUJA-BHASHY A BG 13.18)
(an interpretation of anadi as na adi (not existent at the beginning, that is, having a beginning) This self…its attachment to the gunas arising out of immemorial association with the prakrti. (13.22)
The jiva even while being a certain eternal part of Myself, becomes the bound individual self and remains in the world of (cyclic) life, having been encompassed by ignorance in the form of karma whose beginning is unknown (15.7)
Kumara Vaisnava Sampradaya: Nimbaditya - Kesava Kasmiri comments on gita 5.15-16: “The living entity’s knowledge is obscured into a lesser quality like the light of a lamp is lessened when covered by a shaded glass although it does not change its nature. Contrarily, when one has achieved atma tattva then in the state of moksa or liberation the destruction of the physical and subtle bodies reveals the knowledge of the atma’s quality as the light of a lamp is more illuminating when the shaded glass cover is removed...As the removal of the impurities obscuring a jewel allows its radiance to be seen; in the same way when the impurity of undesirable mundane qualities like lust and fruitiveness are removed and abandoned then the transcendental qualities of wisdom, renunciation and compassion reveal themselves in all their splendor. These qualities are always present without being created because they are eternally manifested as qualities of the atma…. When the jīva’s vidyā destroys avidyā, that vidyā, like the sun, reveals the spiritual knowledge within the jīva. Just as the glow of the sun destroys darkness and reveals objects like pots and cloth, so vidyā destroys avidyā and reveals the spiritual (param) knowledge in which the jīva is convinced of his spiritual nature.”
Our comment on this: The metaphor is very enlightening. The soul was eternally effulgent with knowledge and bliss in the presence of Krishna. Just as the lamp shines by the energy of the powerhouse. Then these became ‘obscured into a lesser quality’. Wisdom, renunciation and compassion were manifest in all their splendor, as a jewel has its radiance. Then impurities obscured these. Then became again visible. In the brahmajyoti there is only sat (eternality), no cit (knowledge) and ananda (bliss). See CC. Adi 2.5. , thus is not the previous state of the soul.
Same in 5.23 Though fallen in the ocean of samsāra, this person alone is the yogī (yuktaḥ), and he alone is happy.
The same he states later in chapter 6, verse 32. Those whose knowledge is veiled by nescience birth after birth since time immemorial have no idea that the highest goal of human existence is first atma tattva or realisation of the soul within the etheric heart and second the perception of the atma or soul in all created beings…
And in chapter 7, verse 13. Why is it that billions of humans do not recognise Lord Krishna as the Supreme Lord and controller of all and the cause and source of all creation? And even those who do know about Lord Krishna being the Supreme Lord of all, how do they still remain a transmigratory soul every lifetime forced to accept a new physical body? To answer these questions Lord Krishna explains: sarvam idam jagat mohitam meaning the entire creation is deluded. This is due to the influence of the three gunas or modes of goodness possessing discrimination and righteousness, mode of passion possessing pride and desire and the mode of ignorance possessing inertia and degradation. These three modes infatuates all living entities causing their higher consciousness to be veiled and inaccessible.
And in chapter 7, verse 28. Having association of the Lord Krishna’s pure devotee and under His guidance are able to free themselves from all sins and thus in the next life are born directly into a spiritual family by such merits. The accumulated sins of previous lives which veil the light of consciousness have been dissolved and all erroneous knowledge along with it, by performance of meritorious spiritual activities for many lifetimes.
If Lord Krishna was not neutrally disposed to all acts of creation, sustenance, preservation, dissolution, etc. then His doership could have some bias and not be equally justifiable for all.
(Kumara Vaisnava Sampradaya: Nimbaditya Kesava Kasmiri's Commentary chapter 9, verse 9 of the Srimad Bhagavad-Gita)
Ramanuja's Commentary elaborates: the differences and all inequalities that exist in the demigods, humans, animals and plants lies in the fact that all jivas or embodied beings which are of a conscious and sentient nature have to account to the reactions of their past good deeds and misdeeds and hence their own actions determine such differences and inequalities. Hence difference in dispensation and inequality in allocation is not to be prescribed from the Supreme Lord due to the fact that he understands such designations as the merits and demerits of a living entities own karma or reactions to previous actions.
BG 13.18 The qualifications to obtain this knowledge is found in the 20 excellent virtues expounded earlier in verse 8 to 12 beginning with reverence, humility etc. which are in the hearts of all human beings albeit dormant or active. Kumara Vaisnava Sampradaya:Nimbaditya, Kesava Kasmiri's Commentary
Chapter 13, verse 22 of the Srimad Bhagavad-Gita. The atma is completely spiritual and the epitome of knowledge…. the intrinsic nature of the atma is immutable and eternally blissful. Kesava Kasmiri's Commentary.
Kesava Kasmiri's Commentary on chapter 14, verse 27 of the Srimad Bhagavad-Gita. In conclusion the jiva or embodied being by attraction of the senses to the gunas becomes immersed, enmeshed and entrapped in samsara the perpetual cycle of birth and death. By engaging in bhakti yoga one is released from samsara and awarded moksa or freedom from material existence.
As the originator of the Vedic scriptures He has imbued them with the ultimate import and no one can fathom this and know the meaning of the Vedic scriptures without His grace. One becomes a knower of the Vedic scriptures when through the grace of Lord Krishna one realises the reality that the Vedic scriptures originated from Him to guide and protect those in material creation to return to Him. (chapter 15, verse 15 of the Srimad Bhagavad-Gita. Kumara Vaisnava Sampradaya: Nimbaditya, Kesava Kasmiri's Commentary)
Rudra Vaisnava Sampradaya: Visnuswami - Sridhara Swami’s commentary on gita 15.5: “Here Lord Krishna is emphasizing that persons whose spiritual knowledge has become awakened do not become deluded in the material existence.”
Our comment: “awakened” means Krishna-consciousness was present, then became dormant, and then returned.
Sridhara Swami comments later:
He is the source of all creation, the absolute supreme ruler of all existence, the witness of all actions and the dispenser of all results from actions such as moksa or liberation and baddha or bondage in samsara the perpetual cycle of birth and death. (Sridhara Swami's Commentary chapter 11, verse 2 of the Srimad Bhagavad-Gita.)
Comment. He gave us baddha as a result of our karma in the spiritual world. He will give us mukti as a result of our karma in the material world.
Sridhara Swami's Commentary on chapter 18, verse 78 of the Srimad Bhagavad-Gita is: One who is devoted to Lord Krishna easily achieves moksa or liberation from material existence and release from samsara the perpetual cycle of birth and death. This is acquired by His Grace through knowledge of His personal bestowal to all jivas or embodied beings the atma or immortal soul which insures continuity in existence and gives the opportunity to return to spiritual existence. (Sridhara Swami's Commentary chapter 18, verse 78 of the Srimad Bhagavad-Gita.)
Madhvacarya on BG 15.5: “On account of the power of understanding being obstructed by nescience, the jiva’s do not know or see Him…when their sense of discrimination becomes shrouded by ignorance in the absence of Vedic knowledge their awareness becomes obscured and they become deluded and assume responsibility or authorship for their individual actions and thus they assume also the reactions that accompany their actions binding them tightly to samara or the cycle of birth and death…enveloped and shrouded in the delusion of illusion…”
Comment: The soul’s powers are obstructed. Eternal dormant knowledge is already rejected; Brahman has only brahma-vadis who will fall to maya; it is not a fountain of ‘new’ souls, for the first time aroused into activities after eternal coma. Nor are the souls eternally in the material world as the anadi-patita-vada invented. Thus the soul was fully active in Krishna’s loving service, then obstructed and punished by maya.
Madhvacarya had already said similarly in his commentary on chapter 5, verse 14 of the Srimad Bhagavad-Gita. Even as the mandate for regency bequeathed by a king upon his son is limited; even so is the independence to perform actions bestowed by the Supreme Lord upon human beings limited as well. To dispel the doubt that human beings might be independent in their actions and consequential reactions regarding the righteous or unrighteous merits or demerits of such actions this verse is responding to. The answer is the Supreme lord does not inaugurate independence of action or initiate the consequential results of actions for any being. Otherwise it would have been unnecessary to include the word lokasya to denote people of the world. Even though the son of the king is ruling over a province of the kingdom and enjoying the fruits having limited independence from the king, he is still responsible for his actions and rulership. In the same way the actions performed by the embodied being and the resulting reactions are not caused by the dependence upon the Supreme Lord but by the results of one’s own activities. When a person believes he is the performer of actions he takes on the responsibility of determining his destiny independent of the Supreme Lord and thus has to accept responsibility for suffering the consequences.
Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura: “One of the associates, His sakti called ignorance, covers the inherent knowledge of the jiva.”
Baladeva Vidyabhusana: “The knowledge of the jiva, though eternal, disappears from view (avrtam) due to the jiva’s hostility to the Lord due to ignorance (ajnanena). Because of this the jivas are bewildered.”
Then he quotes 2 verses:
vaisamya-nairghrnye na sāpeksatvāt tathā hi darsayati
The Lord has no injustice or hatred. Rather he is favorable to the jivas. The sciptures declare this. (Vedānta Sūtra 2.1.35)
na karmāvibhāgād iti cen nānāditvāt
You cannot say the Lord is unjust, because He gives different karmas to each jiva at the beginning. But that is not so, because karma is without a beginning. (Vedānta Sūtra 2.1.36)
Our comment. Anadir here means since time immemorial and beginning with the envy and hostility of the jiva, otherwise the Lord would give unequal treatment to the 2 classes of jivas, putting some eternally in Yoga-maya, some eternally in Maha-maya.
He commented earlier: That which is superior to the intelligence is the jīvātmā residing in the body, whose very form is knowledge, which is realized as distinct from the body, senses, mind and intelligence, and which is the cause of complete destruction of lust. (BG 3.42 Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusana–commentary)
Comment. “whose very form is knowledge”, the soul is not just empty consciousness.
And in BG 9.2-3 his commentary is:
9.2. (verse)This is the highest type of bhakti, the most secret type of bhakti, the most purifying of all methods, which is directly realized, the highest dharma, easy to execute, and eternal.
9.3. (verse) O afflicter of enemies, those who do not have faith in this bhakti do not attain Me and remain fixed on the path of transmigration and death.
Commentary Baladeva. (He makes it that Arjuna asks) “But if this process is so easy to follow, then no one would remain in the material world.”
(Krishna answers) Dharmasya in the genitive case stands for the accusative case. Those who do not accept with firm faith (asraddadhānāh) dharma in the form of devotion to Me, though its strength is well known in the scriptures, because they think that the statements of scripture are exaggeration, do not attain Me, even though they perform other practices to attain Me while ignoring bhakti. They remain completely (nitarām vartante for nivartante) on the path of samsāra, which brings about repeated death (mrtyu samsāra vartmani).
Our comment. “then no one would remain in the material World”. If the material world would be unlimited, no means of massive redemption would get it empty; the material world is a limited area.
9.13 All the jivas of this universe, taking up forms of deva, asura, human and so forth (saravam idam jagat), have lost their power of discrimination (mohitam) by the states of existence (bhavaiḥ) made of sattva, rajas and tamas, the effects of My material gunās (ebhih tribhih guna mayaih)… They are envious of Me, Krsna, possessed of unfailing nature, not liable to fall into the state of experience of the jivas (avyayam); they are envious of Me, the lord of all beings, full of condensed knowledge and bliss, an ocean of infinite auspicious qualities, who am untouched (param) by all the jivas in the gunas (ebhyah).
Our comment. “Lost” . To lose means to be unsuccessful in retaining possession of; mislay. To be deprived of (something one has had). To be unable to keep control or allegiance of. To fail to use or take advantage of. To fail to hear, see, or understand. To remove (oneself), as from everyday reality into a fantasy world. To rid oneself of. To wander from or become ignorant of. To elude or outdistance. To cause to be destroyed.
Similarly he comments in other places:
13.22 Though the jiva is by nature knowledge and bliss, it is situated in prakrti due to impressions of beginningless karma… The cause of the association is explained. The cause is beginningless desire for objects made of the gunas (guna sangah)….The jiva desiring enjoyable objects because of his being an enjoyer, will take shelter of prakrti equipped with the desirables which she offers to him.
13.30 I, a jiva, having a nature of knowledge and bliss, do not actually perform the actions which produce suffering, such as fighting or sacrifice. Inspired by the Supreme Lord according to my desires for fulfilling my enjoyment, and superintended by me who have lost discrimination and possess beginningless impressions for enjoyment.
13.31 this jiva (ayam ātmā), even though situated in a body, as well as being without beginning (anāditvāt param), is avyaya. Having this prominent quality of being without change (avyaya), he is thus without destruction. He does not perform actions such as fighting or sacrifice, because he is without material gunas, being pure knowledge and bliss (nirgunatvāt).
Our comment. ‘pure knowledge and bliss’. There is an actuality of pure knowledge and bliss, covered over in the conditioned state; the soul is not eternally destitute of any qualities.
14.8 The following definition of tamas is given: vastu-yāthātmya-jnānāvarakam viparyaya- jnāna-janakam tamah: tamas produces opposite knowledge, and covers true knowledge of things.
14.19 The pure jiva filled with knowledge and bliss is not the agent of actions filled with sorrow, such as fighting and sacrifice.
14.26-27 he who takes shelter of Me alone by performing the process of bhakti yoga--that person surpasses the gunas which are hard to surpass, and becomes suitable for, in other words attains (kalpate) his own inherent nature (brahma bhuyāya), the eight qualities of ātmā (no sin, no death, no old age, no hunger, no thirst, no lamentation, all desires are fulfilled, fully satisfied)….. by the topmost process of bhakti…the jiva realizes his svarūpa. By bhakti one does not attain a disappearance of the svarūpa of the jiva through merging with Brahman…. For the jiva who is brahman (brahmanah), who has manifested the eight qualities of brahman by destroying the previous coverings of the gunas, who has conquered death (amrtasya), who is unchangeable by being fixed in his svarūpa (avyayasya)—unchanging also in the state of liberation, and also unchanging in his great affection for Me.
Our comment. There is an original svarupa, where all desires are fulfilled, fully satisfied. The jiva is not originally an inert, void entity.
Same in BG 15.1 “It has been described previously that the jiva is naturally endowed with eight qualities and is filled with knowledge and bliss.”
Our comment. ‘filled with knowledge and bliss’, not just an absence of suffering and zero knowledge.
15.18 tāvad esa samprasādo’smāc charirāt samutthāya param jyotirūpam sampadya svena rūpenābhinispadyate, sa uttamah purusah
The ātmā, the object of mercy, rising from its body, attains the supreme light, the Supreme Person, and manifests his natural form. (Chāndogya Upanisad 8.12.3)
Bhaktivedanta purport on Bhagavad-gita 5.15-16 (partly).: A living entity is, by superior nature, full of knowledge. Nevertheless, he is prone to be influenced by ignorance due to his limited power. The Lord is omnipotent, but the living entity is not. The Lord is vibhu, or omniscient, but the living entity is anu, or atomic. Because he is a living soul, he has the capacity to desire by his free will. Such desire is fulfilled only by the omnipotent Lord. And so, when the living entity is bewildered in his desires, the Lord allows him to fulfill those desires…the embodied soul, by his immemorial desire to avoid Krishna consciousness, causes his own bewilderment. Consequently, although he is constitutionally eternal, blissful and cognizant, due to the littleness of his existence he forgets his constitutional position of service to the Lord and is thus entrapped by nescience…Those who have forgotten Krishna must certainly be bewildered.
Bhagavat Sandarbha, Anuccheda 20, again quotes SB 5.18.38.
karoti visva-sthiti-samyamodayam
yasyepsitam nepsitam iksitur gunaih
maya yathayo bhramate tad-asrayam
gravno namas te guna-karma-saksine
By your glance, you carry out creation, maintenance and destruction of the universe by māyā, though it is not desired by you, but only by the jīva.
The commentary-Sridhara swami- says, “The Lord does not desire the creation for himself (iksituh), but he desires it for the jīvas. He does not desire it at all, since prakrti is not suitable object for his glance. He does not desire creation for himself.”
Comment. This world is our error, not of some gods. It didn’t just happen, above Krishna’s almightiness. This is confirmed in the next quote:
Bhagavat Sandarbha, anuccheda 49: “You say that the goal of having forms is to give happiness of bhakti to devotees. Since you are full of bliss, why would you think of their happiness?” The Lord who knows everything is without fault. He would have the fault of lack of compassion by ignoring the devotees who depend only on him (ananya-bhâvânâm). Compassion appears even in âtmârâmas. “By ignorance the jīva produces a false relationship with a body.”
In Sri Bhagavat-sandarbha Anuccheda 71, text 1, Jiva Goswami cites Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.29.48, wherein Narada Muni says:
“They do not know their own or the Lord’s abode, where in fact there is God, Janardana. Those who have smoky intelligence say that the Veda facilitates fruitive activities because they do not know that [Veda].”
In his commentary, Sridhara Svami states: “‘They do not know that’ means ‘they do not know the Veda’ because they do not know svam lokam, ‘their own abode,’ which means their constitutional position, the truth about themselves, which is the real purport that one is to perceive in the Vedas. [And that constitutional position] is where God is.”
"Those who speak only of parts of the Veda that advocate karma do not know his (te) planet which is the Lord’s svarupa (sva). They know only Svarga. In that planet (yatra) the Lord resides.”
In text 2 of Anuccheda 71 of Sri Bhagavat-sandarbha Jiva Goswami says on this verse: In this verse Narada Muni says, “Those who are less intelligent (dhumra-dhiyah) accept (ahuh) the Vedic ritualistic ceremonies (veda sa-karmakam) as all in all. They know of Svargaloka and the other planets in the material universe, but they do not know that the purpose of the Vedas is to understand one’s own home (svam lokam) where (yatra) the Supreme Personality of Godhead (janardanah) lives.
Another translation: Those who speak only of parts of the Veda that advocate karma do not know his (te) planet which is the Lord’s svarupa (sva). They know only Svarga. In that planet (yatra) the Lord resides.
Bhaktivedanta purport (excerpts): “…their interest of life – to return home, back to Godhead.” “…their real home in the spiritual world...there are many Vaikuntha planets, and the topmost planet is Krishnaloka, Goloka Vrindavana.”
Our comment: The Brahman effulgence is also in the spiritual world, but that part is worse than hell, so that is not considered home. “The pure devotee would rather go to hell than merge into the effulgence of the Lord.” (CC Madhya 6.268-269 p.) Returning to one’s real home thus means Goloka. One came from the Vaikuntha planets, not from Brahman.
Bhaktivedanta purport continued:
‘return home, back to Godhead’ 2x
‘return to Godhead…the spiritual Vaikuntha planets, and in particular the planet known as Goloka Vrindavana.’
‘One can go to the supreme planet (param vrajet) simply by chanting the Hare Krishna mantra...return home, back to Godhead.’
Our comment: Conclusion of this 4.29.48: Go back home, svam lokam, meaning one’s own and Krishna’s home, the Vaikuntha planets or Goloka Vrndavana.
In text 6 of Anuccheda 100 of Sri Bhagavat-sandarbha, Jiva Goswami cites Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.87.14, which is one of the prayers of the personified Vedas.
jaya jaya jahy ajam ajita dosa-grbhita-gunam
tvam asi yad atmana samavaruddha-samasta-bhagah
aga-jagad-okasam akhila-sakty-avabodhaka te
kvacid ajayatmana ca carato ‘nucaren nigamah
sri-srutayah ucuh—the Vedas said; jayajaya—victory to You, victory to You; jahi—please defeat; ajam—the eternal illusory potency of Maya; ajita—O unconquerable one; dosha—to create discrepancies; gribhita—who has assumed; gunam—the qualities of matter; tvam—You; asi—are; yat—because; atmana—in Your original status; samavaruddha—complete; samasta—in all; bhagah—opulences; aga—nonmoving; jagat—and moving; okasam—of those who possess material bodies; akhila—of all; sakti—the energies; avabodhaka—O You who awaken; te—You; kvacit—sometimes; ajaya—with Your material energy; atmana—and with Your internal, spiritual energy; ca—also; caratah—engaging; anucaret—can appreciate; nigamah—the Vedas.
The srutis said: Victory, victory to You, O unconquerable one! By Your very nature You are perfectly full in all opulences; therefore please defeat the eternal power of illusion, who assumes control over the modes of nature to create difficulties for conditioned souls. O You who awaken all the energies of the moving and nonmoving embodied beings, sometimes the Vedas can recognize You as You sport with Your material and spiritual potencies.
Comment: dosa-grbhita-guna, dosha—to create discrepancies; gribhita—who has assumed; gunam—the qualities of matter.
Jiva Goswami says: “Dosa here is the fault of ignorance, which makes the living entity forget the Supreme Personality of Godhead [atma-vismrti].”
Our comment: Forgetting implies that the knowledge of the Supreme Lord was once there.
One may try to interpret vismrti in this statement to mean that the jiva has always been forgetting Krishna; that it is “an unchanging state of forgetfulness,” but then other words should be used, e.g. simply stating “the soul is eternally without the vision – darsana – of Krishna”, since according to the Oxford dictionary to forget means: “fail to remember or recall, lose the memory of, neglect stop thinking about, put out of one’s mind.”
This is clearly describing going from ‘knowing’ to ‘ignorance’.
More from this anuccheda.
The Lord asks: “By what action will I show my excellence?”
Srutis: You show it by destroying maya and giving bhakti: conquer maya (ajam jahi).
Lord: “Maya is a sakti with the functions of vidya and avidya. By destroying maya I will destroy vidya also.”
Srutis: “Maya has accepted the quality of vidya, a cause of remembering you, with the fault of avidya, the cause of the jiva forgetting atma. By her covering, maya creates the fault of avidya and sometimes, somewhere, somehow, maya leaves some jiva. There is thus the possibility of fault in maya’s quality of vidya, whose nature is making maya leave the jiva, to add avidya (since maya has covered the jiva in the first place.) Thus, better to uproot maya completely and give the jivas bhakti to your lotus feet.”
In text 6 of Anuccheda 103 of Sri Bhagavat-sandarbha, Jiva Goswami discusses the potencies of the Supreme Lord, as they are listed in Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.39.55.
sri-srutaya ucuh
jaya jaya jahy ajam ajita dosha-gribhita-gunam
tvam asi yad atmana samavaruddha-samasta-bhagah
aga-jagad-okasam akhila-sakty-avabodhaka te
kvacid ajayatmana ca carato ‘nucaren nigamah
sunanda-nanda-pramukhaih—headed by Sunanda and Nanda; parshadaih—by His personal attendants; sanaka-adibhih—by Sanaka Kumara and his brothers; sura-isaih—by the chief demigods; brahma-rudra-adyaih—headed by Brahma and Rudra; navabhih—nine; ca—and; dvija-uttamaih—by the chief brahmanas (headed by Marici); prahrada-narada-vasu-pramukhaih—headed by Prahlada, Narada and Uparicara Vasu; bhagavata-uttamaih—by the most exalted devotees; stuyamanam—being praised; prithak-bhavaih—by each in a different loving attitude; vacobhih—with words; amala-atmabhih—sanctified; sriya pushtya gira kantya kirtya tushtya ilaya urjaya—by His internal potencies Sri, Pushti, Gir, Kanti, Kirti, Tushti, Ila and Irja; vidyaya avidyaya—by His potencies of knowledge and ignorance; saktya—by His internal pleasure potency; mayaya—by His material creative potency; ca—and; nishevitam—being served.
Encircling the Lord and worshiping Him were Nanda, Sunanda and His other personal attendants; Sanaka and the other Kumaras; Brahma, Rudra and other chief demigods; the nine chief brahmanas; and the best of the saintly devotees, headed by Prahlada, Narada and Uparicara Vasu. Each of these great personalities was worshiping the Lord by chanting sanctified words of praise in his own unique mood. Also in attendance were the Lord’s principal internal potencies—Sri, Pushti, Gir, Kanti, Kirti, Tushti, Ila and Irja—as were His material potencies Vidya, Avidya and Maya, and His internal pleasure potency, Sakti.
Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti explains the Lord’s potencies mentioned in these verses: “Sri is the potency of wealth; Pushti that of strength; Gir, knowledge; Kanti, beauty; Kirti, fame; and Tushti, renunciation. These are the Lord’s six opulences. Ila is His bhu-sakti, also known as sandhini, the internal potency of whom the element earth is an expansion. Irja is His internal potency for performing pastimes; she expands as the tulasi plant in this world. Vidya and Avidya [knowledge and ignorance] are external potencies who cause the living entities’ liberation and bondage, respectively. Sakti is His internal pleasure potency, hladini, and Maya is an internal potency who is the basis of Vidya and Avidya. The word ca implies the presence of the Lord’s marginal energy, the jiva-sakti, who is subordinate to Maya. Lord Vishnu was being served by all these personified potencies.”
Jiva Goswami comments: sah bhedah samsarinam sva-svarupa-vismrty-adi-hetur avaranatmaka-vrtti-visesa…meaning:
“The pastime potency is divided into knowledge and ignorance potencies. The ignorance potency, which makes one forget the Supreme Lord’s powers and opulences, brought the bliss of ecstatic love to Krishna’s mother (Yasoda). In the same way, it also bewildered the gopis, as is described in the Gopala-tapani Upanisad. This will be described in detail at the proper time. The material ignorance potency makes the conditioned souls in the material world forget the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It covers their true knowledge.”
Another translation: “Vidya of the first type (internal) causes realization of the Lord. This is a special function of the samvit-sakti. Vidya of the second, material type is the door to revelation of the first type of vidya. Avidya of the first type is the cause of forgetting the Lords’ powers. It is a function of the bliss of prema of his mother and others. Gopi- janavidya-kala-prerakah: the Lord inspires the gopis with prema filled with ignorance of his powers. (Gopala-tapani Upanisad) This will be discussed in its proper place. The second type of avidya is the cause of jiva’s forgetting the Lord’s svarupa, with the special function of covering the jiva...Samvit is the jnana and ajnana saktis (causing awareness of the Lord, and forgetting his powers).”
Our comment: Again the word vismrti, forgetfulness, which means that there is some original knowledge that has been forgotten, due to the avidya-sakti. This ignorance potency covers the true knowledge of the soul.
śrī-śuka uvāca,
buddhīndriya-manaḥ-prāṇān,
janānām asṛjat prabhuḥ,
mātrārthaṁ ca bhavārthaṁ ca,
ātmane ’kalpanāya ca
The Supreme Lord manifested the material intelligence, senses, mind and vital air of the living entities so that they could indulge their desires for sense gratification, take repeated births to engage in fruitive activities, become elevated in future lives and ultimately attain liberation. (SB 10.87.2) (quoted in Bhagavat Sandarbha anuccheda 110)
Commentary Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura: The Lord created intelligence, senses, mind and pranas for the jivas’ enjoyment and liberation.
Commentary Sri Jiva Gosvami: He created the upādhis for jīva’s enjoying māyā (mātrārtham). Mātra means measuring, from the root mi which also means creating illusions or māyā. He created upādhis for causing action, which creates repeated birth (bhavārtham) and for going to other planets and enjoying there (ātmane). Then he quotes:
yo ’sau bhagavati sarva-bhūtātmany anātmye ’nirukte ’nilayane paramātmani vāsudeve ’nanya-nimitta-bhakti-yoga-laksano nānā-gati-nimittāvidyā-granthi-mridhana-dvārena yadā hi mahā-purusa-purusa-prasañgah.
That liberation, whose essential nature is unmotivated bhakti-yoga to the Lord full of qualities, who attracts the minds of all beings, who is not the object of merging, who is not described by material words, who remains beyond destruction of the universe, who is the most excellent ātmā, who is the son of Vasudeva, takes place by destruction of the knot of ignorance which causes various material goals, when there is association with devotees of the Lord. (SB 5.19.20)
Our comment: “destruction of the knot of ignorance”. The souls were free, unknotted, pure, without body. Then they became knotted or bound. They wanted to enjoy. The Lord gave them the instruments. This refutes anadir-patita-vada.
Commentary Sri Jiva Gosvami (continued): As long as the jīvas are averse to the Lord, the avidyā-śakti causing various creations remains prominent.
He comments in Bhagavat Sandarbha, anuccheda 49, on Brahma-sûtra 2.1.33:
“lokavat tu lîlâ-kaivalyam: “the Lord’s pastimes, without motive, are similar to actions in this world.”
Another translation and commentary of this verse we read in Krsna Sandarbha, anuccheda 177: The Lord’s creation of the world is just a pastime, an act without motive, in which the Lord becomes completely absorbed, seeing nothing else, as we see in an ordinary person’s conduct. In this world a madman out of intense bliss dances without a particular motive. Similarly the Lord acts without motive.
srstyâdikam harir naiva prayojanam apehsya tu
kurute kevalânandâdyathâ mattasyanartanam
pûrnânandasya tasyeha prayojana-matih kutah
muktâ avyâpta-kâmâh syuh him utâsy akhilâtmanah
Without a goal, the Lord carries out creation out of bliss alone, like a mad man dancing. What is the question of a goal for the Lord who is complete bliss? Persons who are liberated have no desires to be fulfilled. What then to speak of desires in the Lord, the soul of all beings? (Nârâyana-samhitâ)
…the example is used to show that the Lord enacts pastimes without considering his goal, simply out of great, inherent bliss…Sruti says devasyaiva svabhâvo’yam âpta- kâmasya kâ sprhâ: the act of creation is the nature of the Lord; for one whose desires are fulfilled at all times, what desire does he have? (Mândukya Upanisad)…the Lord’s actions in relation to creation of the universe are unmotivated, then what can one say about his actions in Vaikuntha?
Our comment: But the creation of matter is the prisonhouse – durga. How it is bliss?
This is so on a long-term basis; it leads to bliss if the souls get out of the prison.
This is a long way or roundabout to bliss; not directly bliss for the jivas.
But Krishna’s expansions, although creating the prisons of matter, are blissed out in all Their activities; it is a necessary evil for the jiva. Krishna’s expansions create the prison of matter to help the jivas. And that compassion is also Their bliss. Further, it is declared by Parasara muni in the Vishnu Purana: The whole creation is maintained by 1/10,000 part of 1/10,000 part of Lord Krishna's inconceivable power. This is figurative since the material world is finite and the spiritual world infinite. Compared to an infinity, something finite becomes like a zero. Thus Krishna’s expansions know only bliss.
Anadi-patita-vada mistakenly considers the material world another infinity. In that idea everything of the material world is bliss, given this Brahma-sutra sloka, but then why He has avataras and sastra here; no need for the “bliss” everyone is in, here. Why is that “blissful” creation here in the first place? They must answer: “as the original outpour of bliss or lila of Him: ”lokavat tu lîlâ-kaivalyam”.
The anadi-patita-vadi’s have no answer then ‘it is so’. One may ponder, how/when this material creation happened? If you say literally “anadir-baddha jiva”, then the souls here didn’t choose for bondage, because they are “just so (turned away)” eternally, without cause, choice, rhym or reason. ‘Eternally (taken literally) rejecting or baddha’ are two contradictory words which when put together have no one meaning.
Thus the material creation itself is not lila or bliss for the jivas but the necessary evil accompanying a free wrong choice of the jiva.
The right idea is that at any time in the past, present or future the jiva can choose to accept or reject the mercy of the Lord.
One anadi-patita-vadi answered us: “The example of lila is given to make a difficult point easily understandable. The point being made here is that the Lord does not create the world because He lacks something in Him.
Our own experience is that we act only to get something which we lack, or we engage in a an act to get pleasure such as in a hobby.
But the Lord is aptakama and atmarama. So why does He act? It does not make sense that He creates this big universe.
So the example is given to say that His act is not for achieving something for Himself. His action does not fall into the above two categories, i.e. achieving something that He lacks or to get happiness. He acts out of happiness not for happiness.”
We countered: “But the question still remains - Why does He create an unlimited prison?’’
He answered: “He creates it so that people can become devotees. Of course you may say, why make the jiva conditioned in the first place?
The answer is that the jiva’s conditioning is beginningless. The Lord did not make the jiva conditioned. He is only trying to help the beginningless conditioned soul to get out of the conditioning. And that is His bliss.’’
But then the Lord is not all-powerful; the material world is there without His desire. And if He is all-powerful He would be open to the charge of partiality; favoritism (to the nitya-siddhas) and cruelty (to the nitya-baddhas).
It is our practical experience that no one without living in society, without having committed crime to the king or the citizens, having never met them, can be a criminal, by chance, and sentenced for life in the jail.
Nor is one in jail for an accidental mistake as tatastha-fall-vada claims.
Krishna forgives that, similar to: “Even if one commits the most abominable action, if he is engaged in devotional service he is to be considered saintly because he is properly situated in his determination.” (Bg 9.30)
It wouldn’t be righteous; some souls gaze for a moment at the spiritual world and get prema-mukti for eternity. The other souls have to struggle with the religious rituals for many many births to get that same, because they glanced at maya.
Thus this anadi-patita-vada is a theory for armchair speculators, who don’t see the nearly unlimited pains in the material world, and who can only conclude: “it is somehow, lila – pastime.”
The conclusion is that one is in jail because one is actually, really a criminal.
This is confirmed in Bhagavat Sandarbha, ‘saktis of the Lord’, anuccheda 117 where Sri Jiva Gosvami quotes Sarva-jña-sūkta:
hlādinyā samvid-āślistah sac-cid-ānanda īśvarah |
svāvidyā-samvrtojīvah sankleśa-nikarākarah ||
The Lord full of eternity, knowledge and bliss is embraced by the hlādinī and samvit śaktis. The jīva, the very form of suffering, is surrounded by his own ignorance.
Comment: “The jīva, the very form of suffering”. The baddha-jiva would be a fault of the creator, if the jiva’s suffering is not his own karma.
Avidyā of the first type is the cause of forgetting the Lords’ powers. It is a function of the bliss of prema of his mother and others. Gopī- janāvidyā-kalā-prerakah: the Lord inspires the gopīs with prema filled with ignorance of his powers. (Gopāla-tāpanī Upanisad) The second type of avidyā is the cause of jīva’s forgetting the Lord’s svarūpa, with the special function of covering the jīva. (Bhagavat Sandarbha, Śaktis of the Lord, anuccheda 117)
Comment: “jīva’s forgetting the Lord’s svarūpa… covering the jīva.”
The jiva was Krishna conscious and forgot about Krishna consciousness.
Krsna Sandarbha
Śrīdhara Svāmī’s commentary is this: Bhīsma offers his work to Krsna in order to pray for rati to Krsna, the highest goal. Vibhūmnī means “to Krsna in comparison to whom no one has any greatness.” This shows that Krsna has supreme power. He is endowed (upagate) with the highest bliss arising from his svarūpa (sva-sukham). He sometimes accepts (upeyusi) prakrti for play (vihartum). He is not like the jīva who is dependent and has his svarūpa covered. His play is described. From this play the sequence of creation (bhāva-pravāhah) manifests. (Krsna Sandarbha Anuccheda 37)
Someone may argue that Balarāma is material because he was transferred from Devaki by māyā. If he were the complete Lord, māyā could not transfer him. However this māyā is endowed with the cit-sakti whose desire is unrestricted. This is explained in the text.
visnor māyā bhagavatī
yayā sammohitam jagat
ādistā prabhunāmśena
kāryārthe sambhavisyati
The potency of the Lord, full of power, who bewilders the whole world, will merge with the cit-sakti by the request of her master to perform her actions. (SB 10.1.25)
Amśena sambhavisyati means “she will merge with his amśa, the cit-sakti.” Thus she is called Ekānamsa, one without any parts. Some say the name means “one in whom there is one entity, without any division.” (Krsna Sandarbha– Anuccheda 86)
Comment: Cit-sakti can empower or change maya, so gunamayi maya can make the impossible, possible and enter the cit-sakti for her purposes– to take a rebel, disturbing soul out of Krishna–lila.
Padma Purāna, Uttara-khanda says:
tatra purveye ca sādhyā viśve devāh sanātanāh
te ha nākam mahimāndh sacantah śubha-darśanāh
Those who are accomplished from the past, the eternal associates, with glorious appearance, reside in that abode. (Krsna Sandarbha, anuccheda 106)
Comment: One becomes an eternal associate, eternal is figurative; it has a beginning.
Bhakti Sandarbha
Sri Bhakti Sandarbha Anuccheda 1:
Although purely conscious by nature, their knowledge about their own intrinsic nature is covered by the Lord’s external potency, maya, because she finds in them the defect of obliviousness to Him in the form of beginingless ignorance of the Absolute Reality. To dispel any laxity in this regard, scripture again explains that it is our apathy towards the Absolute, rooted in our beginningless ignorance of the Lord, which is the cause of our misery. Scripture instructs us to focus our attention on the Absolute, which is like a treatment meant to nullify the cause of our disease.
Our comment: We were diseased forever? In general one is healthy and gets diseased. What god makes or creates one diseased and suffering and then has the pastime of playing as a doctor to be the hero as a savior. Not Krishna. The one advocating such a god is in the words of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura in illusion about spiritual knowledge on para-tattva. That preacher is also mistaken on jiva-tattva – thinking that some souls are for no reason eternally condemned for the dungeon of maya and some for no reason blessed with eternal bliss, with no freedom to go out.
Bhaktivinoda Thakura describes that illusion about spiritual knowledge is of four types:
sva-tattve para-tattve ca
sadhya-sadhana-tattvayoh
virodhi-vishaye caiva
tattva-bhramash catur-vidhah (8)
Sva-tattva bhrama (illusion about one’s own identity), paratattva-bhrama (illusion about the Supreme Personality of Godhead), sadhya-sadhana-bhrama (illusion about the processes of sadhana and prema-bhakti), and virodhi-vishaya-bhrama (illusion regarding subjects unfavorable to Krishna consciousness) are the four kinds of illusion found in conditioned souls. (Dvitiya-yama Sadhana– Bhajana in the Morning– Sadhu-sange anartha-nivritti– Removal of Anarthas in Association of Devotees from the Shri Bhajana-rahasya – Bhaktivinoda Thakura)
Sri Jiva Gosvami confirms this by continuing to write immediately after this:
“This situation is summed up in Srimad-Bhagavatam in the statement of the sage, Sri Kavi, to the King of Videha:
“A person who is not devoted to the Lord because of the influence of the Lord’s deluding potency, maya, succumbs to forgetfulness, misapprehension, and fear arising out of absorption in that which is secondary to the Lord. Therefore, the wise should worship the Lord with exclusive devotion, considering their teacher as their worshipful deity and object of lover. (SB. 11.2.37)
Our comment: The word asmrtih means forgetfulness. Maya induces forgetfulness. The soul knew Krishna, and then comes forgetfulness: “fail to remember or recall, lose the memory of, neglect stop thinking about, put out of one’s mind’’ is the dictionary meaning.
Sridhara Svami comments: The phrase isad-apetasya, ‘of one who has gone astray from the Lord,’ refers to a person not devoted to God. Such a person is under the influence of the Lord’s deluding potency, which induces a state of asmrtih, or forgetfulness, which here refers to ignorance of one’s own intrinsic nature.
Our comment: ‘’gone astray’’ means the soul was with the Lord, but ‘’became lost or mislaid’’ (so is the dictionary meaning of gone astray).
(Another translation of Sridhara Svami’s comments) “The fear here is created by the Lord’s material energy. Budhah means ‘an intelligent person,’ and abhajet means ‘should worship.’ Fear is created by absorption (abhinivesatah) in material things, beginning with the material body. It is created by the false ego of identifying with the material body and other material things. It is created because the original spiritual form of the living entity is not manifest. Why does the material energy (maya) do this? Because the living entity has turned away from the Supreme Lord (isad apetasya), the material energy makes him forget (asmrtih), and thus his own original spiritual form is no longer manifested. From this comes the misidentification (viparyayah) of thinking ‘I am this body.’ Thus, from being absorbed in something other than the Supreme Lord (dvitiyabhinivesatah) fear (bhayam) is created.”
Comment: Again this word asmrtih. Maya induces forgetfulness.
The words “instead of being the eternal servant of Krishna” indicate that the original position is servant of Krishna. Instead of remaining in this position, the soul “becomes Krishna’s competitor.” “Becoming” indicates that the original position was something else, and that original position has already been described as “being the eternal servant of Krishna.” If one wants to propose that originally the soul was in a neutral or undefined position or somewhere outside of Krishna-lila, then the proper expression would have been “instead of becoming the eternal servant of Krishna, he becomes Krishna’s competitor.” But then the expression “his conception of life is reversed” makes no sense. Reversal means the original position has to be servant of Krishna. And again this word asmrtih. Maya induces forgetfulness. The soul knew Krishna, and then ‘’fail to remember or recall, lose the memory of, neglect stop thinking about, put out of one’s mind.’’
In the brahma-jyotir, the souls are not aware of Krishna. One of the functions of the brahma-jyotir is to veil Krishna and His pastimes. Neither are their original spiritual forms manifest by the souls in the brahma-jyotir, who are described as atomic in form. Here it is also stated that we have forgotten our original form and relationship with Krishna. But if we are eternally fallen and atomic in the brahma-jyotir, there is no question of forgetting this. There would be nothing to forget.
In Anuccheda 6 Jiva Gosvami quotes SB. 5.19.18-19
“By following one’s prescribed duty according to the varna system, one also obtains apavarga, which is causeless bhakti-yoga for Lord Vasudeva, who is the Supreme Soul, the shelter of all, beyond mind and speech, free from attachment and the Soul of all. This happens only when one obtains the association of a devotee of the Lord, by which the knot of ignorance, the cause of being subjected to various destinations in the material world, is cut asunder.”
Our comment: “the cause of being subjected to various destinations in the material world” is started by becoming bound up by cords and knots of ajnana. What god is that who, without the soul doing anything wrong, binds him up since beginningless time. Which king binds up a good citizen for no reason– only a malevolent despot.
The same in Anuccheda 10 quoting: “The wise and self-controlled cut the knot of karma with the sword of meditation on Lord Hari. Who would not feel attracted to His pastimes?” (SB. 1.2.15)
And in Anuccheda 130: “Then by performing pure bhakti to the supreme, unlimited, transcendent Lord, who is the source of all energies and the embodiment of bliss, you will gradually be able to cut the powerful knot of ignorance that fosters the conceptions of I and mine.” (SB 4 11.30)
In Anuccheda 106: “O Lord, by a moment’s association with Your dear friend Siva, we have directly attained You as our ultimate destination and as the topmost physician for treating the virtually incurable disease of repeated birth and death in material existence.” (SB. 4.30.38)
Our comment: One becomes diseased and then gets cured. No god (but only a demon) creates one eternally diseased.
In text 22 of Anuccheda 111, Bhakti-sandarbha, Jiva Goswami says: “Devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead is eternal.” This does not make sense if we say that some souls were originally, eternally, in a state of nondevotional service in the brahma-jyotir. The truth is that the souls are in Krishna’s jyoti only for very a short time, without service. Eternally, originally the soul was in Krishna’s lila, then a short time in the nightmare of maya and the last snare of maya-Brahman-, and then, once burnt, twice shy, returns back to eternal devotional service.
In text 1 of Anuccheda 112 of Sri Bhakti-sandarbha, Jiva Goswami goes on to quote Bhagavatam 11.14.25:
“Just as gold, when smelted in fire, gives up its impurities and returns to its pure brilliant state, similarly, the spirit soul, absorbed in the fire of bhakti-yoga, is purified of all contamination caused by previous fruitive activities and returns to its original position of serving Me in the spiritual world.”
Jiva Goswami comments: “This verse means: ‘With love shaking away (vidhuya) past karma, the devotee attains his original pure spiritual form and then engages in serving (bhajati) Me (mam).” The words Jiva Goswami uses for “attains his original pure spiritual form” are suddha svarupam ca prapya.
Commentary BBT: “this verse indicates that the devotee goes back to the spiritual world and there worships Lord Krishna in his original spiritual body, which is compared to the original pure form of smelted gold.”
Anuccheda 147: “When a diseased eye is treated with medicinal ointment it gradually recovers its power to see. Similarly, as a conscious living entity cleanses himself of material contamination by hearing and chanting the pious narrations of My glories, he regains his ability to see Me, the Absolute Truth, in My subtle spiritual form.” (SB 11.14.26)
Anuccheda 149 and 153 quotes Sri Saunaka, who said:
“If a person who has fallen into this fearful material existence helplessly chants the name of the Lord, which is feared by fear personified, he is immediately delivered by the power of the name. (SB 1.1.14)
Comment. The same we read here: “I have been searching for some sign of you, and now I have found you. I worship you, the goddess of fortune, who reigns over all worlds. You are a shower of gold raining upon a person who has Fallen (patitā) in the universe and is wandering about for a treasure of chick-peas.” (Sri Rupa Gosvami Ujjvala-nīlamani 15.207-208)
In Anuccheda 178 it is said that the living entity doesn’t become svarupa sakti – as some claim: “In the statement, the living being is part of You, who possess all potencies it is understood that the living being is a part only of that aspect of the Lord who shelters the intermediary potency (tatastha) known as jiva-sakti, which is one among the Lord’s unlimited potencies. The living being is not part of the Lord’s intrinsic nature, which consists of His svarupa-sakti, or internal potency. Thus, the jiva is under the shelter of the Lord just as a particle of sunlight is connected to the original orb of the sun.”
In Anuccheda 178 of Sri Bhakti-sandarbha, text 1, Jiva Goswami says:
iyam akincanakhya bhaktir eva
jivanam svabhavata ucita.
svabhavika-tad-asraya hi jivah.
iyam—thus; akincanakhya bhaktih—pure devotional service; eva—indeed; jivanam—of the living entities; svabhavata—by nature; ucita—is said; svabhavika-tad-asraya—taking shelter of their own natures; hi—indeed; jivah—the living entities.
Engagement in pure devotional service is the natural position of all living entities.
Jiva Goswami adds: Thus the individual spirit souls are part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They are His potencies. They naturally take shelter of Him (tad-asrayatvam).
Anuccheda 179: The implication of this statement is as follows: From a beginningless state the living beings are devoid of awareness of the Lord, and this is the cause of their being turned away from Him. When this ignorance is dispelled, the wisdom that enables them to turn their attention towards the Lord appears. Therefore Vidura said to the sage Maitreya:
“Auspicious devotees of Lord Krsna like you wander in this material world simply to bless people, who due to misfortune are not devoted to Lord Krsna, and who are thus irreligious and exceedingly miserable.” (SB. 3.5.3)
In this verse the adverb daivat, “by misfortune,” means that they are not devoted to the Lord because of their past karma. Due to absorption in such karma, they are adharmasila, or irreligious, which means that they are devoid of bhagavad-dharma or bhakti.
Another translation reads:
When (yarhi) there is association of devotees he concentrates on you. This means that knowledge of the Lord which produces direct meeting with him manifests at the end of eternal absence (samsargābhāva) of perfect knowledge of the Lord, caused by the jīva’s aversion.
Our comment: “Beginningless” and “is the cause” taken literally would cause a contradiction between these two statements, thus “beginningless” must be taken as “since time immemorial.”
SB 3.5.3 “due to misfortune” and “because of their past karma,” refute the notion of the anadi-patita-vadi that the soul is in the material world without cause; the cause is unfortunate karma or activities in the spiritual world. If this would be causeless, the Lord would be partial, designating some eternally in Vaikuntha and some eternally in maya. Krishna is the Ultimate Controller and Designer; nothing is without Him willing it so; no blade of grass moves or exists apart from His Sweet Will.
Where we heard this before, “things happening without cause” “chance,” yes, the atheistic scientists– Dawkins, Krauss, Hitchenson. Also some sunyavadi buddhists say similarly: as a dream comes with no cause.
Anuccheda 179: Those who are referred to as being related to the beauty of the movement of the Lord’s feet are the devotees. They generally do not look upon those described in the verse, meaning that they do not bestow their merciful glance upon them. Who are the people deprived of such mercy? Those whose minds are turned away from the Lord by offensive activities undertaken with the senses. This explanation of the verse should also be considered.
The detrimental behavior mentioned in this verse that disqualifies one from the mercy of devotees refers to offences and not to normal indulgence in sense enjoyment, because everyone is compelled by nature to fulfill the urges of the senses until blessed with the grace of a devotee. Furthermore, that devotees are merciful towards those entangled in sense desires is expressed in verses such as this:
“Auspicious devotees of Lord Krsna like you wander in this material world simply to bless people who due to misfortune are not devoted to Lord Krsna, and who are thus irreligious and exceedingly miserable.” (SB. 3.5.3)
Our comment: “turned away from the Lord by offensive activities” “offences” “due to misfortune”, according to anadi-patita-vada, refers to activities during that souls’ circling in the cycle of birth and death, but the root cause is innocence of that soul; they are “just” eternally designated to suffer here, where one can easily degrade and the freed souls are “just” eternally designated to Krishna’s paradise, causelessly blessed without reason; can never err or sin and suffer. That vision is not correct. Thus “turned away from the Lord by offensive activities” “offences” “due to misfortune” refers to the soul’s rebellion in the spiritual world.
Anuccheda 204 quotes Skanda Purana:
“He who binds one with the ropes of material existence, who delivers one from the same ropes of material bondage, and who awards ultimate liberation, is none other than the Supreme Absolute, the eternal Lord Visnu.”
Our comment: Who says (some) lord has us eternally bound. Here the present tense is used. Then it says “He awards liberation from the ropes” that means He punished by binding one.
Anuccheda 328-329
“What person who knows the mercy that you show to your devotees could reject you, the dearest among all jīvas, the Supreme Lord of all, who gives all perfections to the devotees who take shelter of you? Who would reject you and accept something for the sake of material enjoyment or liberation, which simply leads to forgetfulness of you? And what lack is there for us who are engaged in the service of the dust of your lotus feet?” (SB 11.29.5) What person who knows what favours you have done for him (sva-krta-vit), having revealed to him your beauty as described in SB 3.28.13, could reject you, as described in the previous line (tam tvā)? There are some persons like the following:
evaṁ harau bhagavati pratilabdha-bhāvo,
bhaktyā dravad-dhṛdaya utpulakaḥ pramodāt
autkaṇṭhya-bāṣpa-kalayā muhur ardyamānas,
tac cāpi citta-baḍiśaṁ śanakair viyuṅkte
The unfortunate yogi who has developed love for the Lord, full of all sweet qualities, whose heart is somewhat soft because of devotion, whose body hairs stand on end in ecstasy, who is constantly overcome with intense tears of joy, gradually withdraws his hook-like mind from the Lord’s form. (SB 3.28.34)
But no one can give you up: he who gives you up is most ungrateful.
Another translation: It appears, however, that some people actually do give up the Lord, such as those specifically qualified for the instruction of Kapila given in this statement: “And then slowly the fish-hook of the mind is withdrawn even from the beautiful image of the Lord, the object of the yogi’s meditation.” (SB. 3.28.34)
Even in this case we must conclude that no one is able to give up the Lord. Consequently, one who does give up the Lord is simply ungrateful.
Our comment: Again this paradox is confirmed: “no one is able to give up the Lord”, but some ungrateful manage to give up Krishna and leave for the illusions of the material energy.
Priti-sandarbha
(Anuccheda 1, Priti-sandarbha)
ko hy evānyāt kaḥ prāṇyāt yad
eṣa ākāśa ānando na syād
ity anena nānā-svarūpa-dharmato’pi tasya kevalānanda-svarūpatvam eva ca darśitam | tathābhūta-mārtaṇdādi-maṇdalasya kevala-jyotiṣṭvavat | atha jīvaś ca tadīyo’pi taj-jnāna-samsargābhāva-yuktatvena tan-māyā-parābhūtaḥ sann ātma-svarūpa-jnāna-lopān māyā-kalpitopādhyāveśāc cānādi-samsāra-duḥkhena sambadhyata iti paramātma-sandarbhādāv eva nirūpitam asti | tata idam labhyate
parama-tattva-sākṣātkāra-lakṣaṇam taj-jnānam eva paramānanda-prāptiḥ | saiva
parama-puruṣārtha iti | svātmājnāna-nivṛttiḥ duḥkhātyanta-nivṛttiś ca nidāne tad-ajnāne gate sati svata eva sampadyate | pūrvasyāḥ parama-tattva-svaprakāśatābhivyakti-lakṣaṇa-mātrātmakatvād uttarasyāś ca dhvamsābhāva-rūpatvād anaśvaratvam | uktam ca pūrvasyāḥ parama-puruṣārthatvam
In Taittiriya Upanishad (2.7.1) it is said that the Supreme is the source of all bliss experienced by the living entities. In the same way the Supreme is also the source of the sun’s light and all other light also. When he is ignorant of the Supreme Lord, the individual soul finds himself defeated by maya (material illusion). In that condition, his awareness of his original form is taken away from him and he is covered by an external form created by maya. In this way he is imprisoned in the world of birth and death and shackled by a host of material sufferings. This was already explained in the Paramatma-sandarbha. Therefore, when one has direct knowledge of the Supreme Truth, one attains the greatest bliss. Attaining that bliss is the true goal of life. When ignorance is dispelled, one understands his true spiritual nature. Then sufferings end. The first (understanding one’s true spiritual nature) of these is attained when the Supreme Truth is directly manifest before one. The second (the end of sufferings) of these is attained when one attains his spiritual form, which never dies. Then one is situated in eternity.
Another translation (partially):
Though the jīva belongs to the Lord, he is controlled by the Lord’s māyā, since he has no previous knowledge of the Lord (samsarga abhāva—prāg-abhāva). Because of absence of knowledge of his own svarūpa as ātmā and acceptance of upādhis made by māyā, the jīva is completely covered with the suffering of beginningless samsāra.
Our comment: “the jiva belongs to the Lord” but then the next logic of the anadi-patita-vadis (apv) is “he never was with the lord; an eternal orphan”– this is unprecedented, never experienced and because there is no example in practical life to prove this, vedic logic rejects such a proposal. In Nyaya-logic, one must be able to give an example otherwise it is just a speculation.
Apv’s theorize as follows: Samsarga ābhava has three types: prāgabhāva (non-existence which ends when the object appears), dhvamśa abhāva (non-existence by destruction of an existing object) and atyanta abhāva (absolute nonexistence, such as a rabbit with horns). The term used in the text is samsarga abhāva, but it indicates prāg abhāva, since knowledge of the Lord cannot be absolute non-existence which is impossible non-existence nor dhvamśa abhāva, an existing thing later destroyed, since it should be eternal once situated in the jīva.
Our comment. “He has no previous knowledge of the Lord” then means from time immemorial, since the time of becoming bound by maya.
“Absence of knowledge of his own svarūpa as ātmā” does not mean that there were no qualities in the atma, as apv proposes; the soul as some kind of a hollow container. Even that analogy is not to their point; how can something dead come to life by getting the bhakti-lata-bija; a baby gets by education dormant qualities awakened. The truth is that just like in the creation of the material elements from pradhana (means unmanifested invisible paramanus or atoms with the gunas– qualities indrawn) the atoms transform by the Lord’s actions into atoms with gunas– qualities. It is not that the atom in pradhana was empty. Qualities and substance are inseparable. Thus this “Samsarga ābhava prāgabhāva (previous non-existence which is subject to destruction with the manifestation of the object)” means that the spiritual atom had its gunas drawn within, covered over. They were latently existent. The spiritual atom was not a literal nirguna, some kind of nothingness. No qualities, no designations, nothing to say of it means there is some kind of sunya-zero. Attributeless substance apv supposes, but of a thing of this kind we have absolutely no knowledge or experience. They say “The term used in the text is samsarga abhāva, but it indicates prāg abhāva, since knowledge of the Lord cannot be atyanta abhāva or dhvamśa abhāva.”
We answer: We read in Sri Madhava’s commentary on the Upanisads:
After dividing the categories into two main divisions as the Independenr (Self-dependent) ans the dependent, the dependent tattva is divided into ‘being’ (bhava) and ‘non-being’ (abhava). Then again ‘non-being’ is grouped under three heads as ‘prior-nonbeing’ (prgabhava), ‘future nonbeing’ (pradhvamsabhava), and ‘eternal nonbeing’ (sadabhava), and ‘being’ (bhava is grouped under two heads, the conscious (cetana) and the unconscious (acetana)…From this follows that Visnu is Cetana and non-being (abhava) is acetana. Of sentient beings only Rama, the presiding deity over primordial matter and the beloved of Visnu is a class by herselfe and is never subject to sorrow. The rest of sentient beings are liable to suffer from sorrow. Visnu being independent is ipso facto ever free from all sorrow.
These terms were not originally meant for the jiva fall discussion, but in debating mayavada. Samsarga abhāva or prāg-abhāva, or pre-nonexistence in this context means since time immemorial, because in numerous other places Sri Jiva Gosvami explains this as Srila Prabhupada in the following lecture: “Anyone who understands Kṛṣṇa scientifically, then he, Kṛṣṇa, says, janma karma ca me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ. Not the foolish man; the intelligent man, who knows Kṛṣṇa actually, then the result is tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti (BG 4.9). Immediately he becomes liberated. So after giving up this body, he never, no more comes back to accept another this material body. He goes back to home, back to Godhead…This living entity, part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, how he has got this condition of material life? That can be explained in this way: Just like a fire spark. As long as it is in the fire, it is also just like fire, glowing. Only it is spark, but it is also glowing. But if it falls down from the fire, then immediately it becomes extinguished. The glowing quality becomes extinguished. And there are three kinds of different positions of the living entity according to the quality of this material nature he comes to associate with. Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgaḥ asya sad-asad-janma-yoniṣu. The living entity is the same, but when he comes into this material world, he associates with three kinds of material qualities: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa.
One who is in sattva-guṇa, brahminical qualification, actually, according to cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). One who has got the brahminical qualities by work and actually in life, satya, śama, dama, titikṣa, ārjavam, jñānaṁ-vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42), so he can understand. Brahma jānāti iti brāhmaṇaḥ, he can understand what is my relationship with the Supreme Lord. The example is given: There is a spark of fire. When it falls down on dry grass, the dry grass becomes blazing. Although the spark is fallen, it causes the atmosphere to lighten. And if the spark falls on the wet ground, then the sparking, the glowing quality, may remain for some time, but it will be extinguished. And if it falls down on the water, it is extinguished. Similarly, when the living entity comes to this material world, if by chance he is in the association of the goodness quality, he keeps God consciousness. And if he is in the association of passion, he is materially busy. And if he associates with the quality of ignorance, he becomes an animal or an animal-like man.
So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is giving everyone the chance of to become again blazing fire by the association of Kṛṣṇa. The same spark, that extinguished charcoal, or karma, if you put it into the fire, it will be again light. Similarly, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is trying to bring forth again the dormant Kṛṣṇa consciousness in every living entity.
nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-bhakti sādhya kabhu naya
śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya
(Hari-bhakti-vilāsa, CC Madhya 22.107)
We are just trying to revive it, uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varān nibhodata (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.3.14). We are trying to awaken the human society to come to the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and live this life successfully.” (SP Lecture at Caitanya Matha, Visakhapatnam, 19-02-1972)
The apv may counter: This samsarga abhāva etc is just a way of logic now used in another context, for the fall or not fall of the spiritual atoms to the material atoms, and not for discussing mayavada.
We answer: Yes, but then one must explain it as we just did, to make it fit the context of Sri Jiva Gosvamis sandarbhas, where he gives some 30 statements on that the soul does fall from Krishna consciousness.
On “the jīva is completely covered with the suffering of beginningless samsara.” The samsara circles beginningless literally. The cycles of birth and death turn for 311.040 trillion years. Then there is a maha-pralaya, total destruction– all the atoms go into the body of Maha-Visnu for 311.040 trillion years. Then most souls try again to find some joy from touching the varieties of the inferior material energy. But the ignorance of the jivas is not literally beginningless; before his entering the samsara process for the first time, he was a soul-eternal, full of knowledge and bliss (sat-cit-ananda). The Gosvami says that he had already explained this in his Paramatma-sandarbha. We gave quotes, just above, from 19 Paramatma anucchedas or thesis that this is so. Not one Paramatma anuccheda proclaimed literal eternal condemnation of the spiritual atoms in the prison house of prakrti-the material atoms.
This same first anuccheda also says: “The destruction of ignorance concerning ātmā is eternal because that knowledge which destroys the ignorance is a manifestation of the supreme entity’s nature of self-revelation.”
As we already noted, in previous sandarbhas, eternal is often figurative. Just as a prisoner let free can become imprisoned again, but rarely if he got a good thrashing, so the soul generally falls only once.
It has been stated that the root of the jiva’s fault is his lack of knowledge concerning the supreme truth.
bhayam dvitiyābhinivesatah syād
isād apetasya viparyayo 'smrtih
For the jiva averse to the Lord, there will be samsara consisting of identity with body and lack of identity with the soul, because of his absorption in the material coverings on the soul, arising from the Lord’s maya. Therefore, the intelligent person, taking guru as his Lord and very self, should fully worship the Lord with pure bhakti. (Priti Sandarbha ANUCCHEDA 1)
Comment. Eternal fault? This is refuted on the ground that of a thing of this kind we have absolutely no knowledge or experience…
“[As] where there is crime it must belong to someone having done a crime. Words such as faults are relative.” No one is faulty without having chosen to become faulty. Someone or something eternally faulty is nowhere in God’s perfection:
om pūrnam adah pūrnam idam
pūrnāt pūrnam udacyate
pūrnasya pūrnam ādāya
pūrnam evāvasisyate
TRANSLATION
The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.
Since it is established that the jiva is an amsa of the Lord, like a particle of light in the sun, jiva’s svarupa as agent (performing actions) and enjoyer in all conditions is established. (Priti Sandarbha ANUCCHEDA 4)
Comment. The jiva was never originally a dead, qualityless, impersonal, zero-substance in the brahmayjoti. Nor Krishna made it eternally bound. The Jiva wants to live, enjoy and be active, it’s svarupa is eternal enjoyer, why would Krishna have designated it to eternal bondage– anadir patita– eternal suffering and darkness as in these jail cells of Durga.
The atma attains eternal bliss without blemish, all auspiciousness and all happiness……The qualities which appear when the inferior qualities are destroyed simply manifest on their own. They are not created. They are eternally with the atma. O king! The knowledge, detachment, power and dharma are eternally with the atma arising from Brahman. (Priti Sandarbha ANUCCHEDA 4 quoting Visnudharma.)
Comment. Bliss, all auspiciousness, knowledge, detachment, power, dharma, all superior qualities, are eternally with the atma.
If the number of jivas is constant in all kalpas, liberation would
not be suitable for them. O knower of dharma! I ask the cause. If kalpa after kalpa the jivas are one by one liberated, the universe would become empty, since there is no beginning to time.
Markandeya answers:
jivasyanyasya sargena nare muktim upagate acintya-saktir bhagavan jagat purayate sada brahmana saha mucyante brahma-lokam upagatah srjyante ca maha-kalpe tad-vidhas capare janan
When a jiva is liberated, the Lord possessing inconceivable sakti fills the universe by releasing another jiva. Those who go to Brahmaloka are liberated with Brahma. Others are "created” in the next life of Brahma. (Visnu Dharmottara 1.81.11-14)
Sometimes some jivas in a kalpa are in a deep sleep state since their karmas have not been awakened. “Creation” refers to entering a universe through creation of upadhis for the infinite number of jivas who have entered infinite universes, though they were merged in prakrti. If there was a first creation, there would be the fault of getting reactions for acts not committed.
(Priti Sandarbha, ANUCCHEDA 15)
Comment. “If there was a first creation, there would be the fault of getting reactions for acts not committed.” This refers to the sarga and visarga– the creations done by Visnu and Brahma. And if the jiva is eternally in samsara there is the same fault of getting reactions for acts not committed; the reaction of *being* in samsara also requires a karma/cause/wrong action. The Lord didn’t cause that since He does not do any wrong action, thus it is the jivas wrong action. What wrong did the jiva do? Same question as ‘why is someone in a jail’- because he committed some wrong action in the free world. The jiva did a criminal act in Goloka or Vaikuntha and is put into Durga’s dungeon.
To conclude this treatise on Jiva Gosvami’s sandarbhas some questions and answers on this topic:
Question. “We do not begin with any experience of anything at all, intrinsic or extrinsic. If we began with an experience of the intrinsic reality centered on All-Attractive Krishna, we would not be able to explore any interest in anything extrinsic, because the bliss of experiencing Krishna is “sandrananda visesa” – it completely obliterates awareness of any other massively inferior form of happiness or fascination. Therefore the jiva is described as anadi-bhagavad-ajnana (supposedly literally “beginninglessly unaware of the All-Attractive”-ed.).
Answer: Another version of nitya-patita-vada; this one that we were not eternally in the material world. We were eternally zero, sunyavadis. Then we got put in the prison, Durga, without having had any experience of the free world, the citizens or the King and Queen. And not having done any criminal act against anyone. (If we would have met anything or anyone of the free world, we would be in the free world, with no chance of ever getting out of it. We would have never been able to end up in the prison.)
The same argument we have with the materialistic scientists; both have no proof from practical life. In Nyaya you need an example for your argument.
All mano-dharma– fantasies.
Another nitya-patita-vadi questioned:
“…consciousness is the inherent quality of the ātmā, therefore it can never be taken away from it in any state of existence. No matter how much māyā influences the jīva, he never loses consciousness and the sense of “I.” He cannot become dead matter. In the same way, if Vedic knowledge were manifest in the ātmā, the jīva could never forget it or be unaware of it, no matter how much he is covered by māyā. Just like a bulb which has light in it cannot lose it, no matter how much the bulb is covered externally. Others may not see the light of the bulb, but the light is never lost to the bulb itself. Therefore, Jīva Gosvāmī is right when he says that the jīva has beginningless ignorance, anādyavidyā. However, being a conscious entity, he has the potential to acquire knowledge.”
Our answer: But one can lose knowledge from one life to the next; one life a bhakta, but by offenses or papa, next life everything covered over.
Or even in this one life we forget information of the past, for example the teachings we got in kindergarten, high school or college.
One more question: When the knowledge would change from unmanifest to manifest by some practice then that would make the ātmā modifiable, vikārī, like matter.
Our answer: This is not true. Dharma bhuta jnana contracts and expands, not the soul itself. Vikara doesn’t happen to the soul. Avinasi va are ayam atmanucitti-dharma “The soul’s consciousness is never destroyed.” (Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad, 4.5.14; Govinda-bhasya, 2.3.26)
Hare Krishna
This was chapter 19 of our book ‘’From Radha-Syama to Maya-devi dhama ‘’, which has 27 chapters. We can send you the whole e-book, if you write us at patitapavanadas@yahoo.com
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