Krishna

Srila Prabhupada – “Some devotee wants to serve Krishna as flower; they become flower there. If I want that "As a flower I shall lie down at the lotus feet of Krishna," he becomes flower, voluntarily. And he can change his, from flower to human body. That is spiritual life. There is no restriction. If some devotee wants to serve Krishna as cow, he serves Krishna as cow, as calf, as flower, as plant, as water, as ground, field, or as father, as mother, as friend, as beloved, anything”. It is inconceivable, yet a fact. Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.1-4 - Melbourne, May 20, 1975

Srila Prabhupada – “We are also expansions of Krishna’s form”. Srimad-Bhagavatam lecture 1.3.1-3 — San Francisco, March 28, 1968\

Srila Prabhupada – “Yes, human form. God is also human form. "Man is made after the shape of God." So God is also like human form. Here you see Krsna, two hands, two legs”. Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.1-4 - Melbourne, May 20, 1975

Devotee – “When we are in the spiritual sky and serving Krishna, we have a perfect relationship with Krishna. What causes us to fall down in the material world, because we are already serving Krishna?”

Srila Prabhupada – “Because you desire to fall down”. Bhagavad-gita lecture Melbourne on June 25, 1974

Hari Sauri – “In the spiritual world, the force that moves everything is Krsna Himself. There is only the ‘present’. i.e. the ‘presence’ of Krsna. So there is no sense of past and future, only eternal exchange with Krsna. There is no time in the spiritual world because Krsna Himself is the supreme regulating principle”.http://www.lotusimprints.com/new/blog/

Hridayananda   – “They say that God should have created us so that we...”

Srila Prabhupada – “He has created already perfect. Because you are perfect, therefore you have got the independence to misuse. You are not a dead stone. That is perfection. Ye yathä mäà prapadyante. You can go anywhere, sarva-ga. You can go to the Vaikuntha. Yänti deva-vratä devän. You can go to the higher planets. You can go to the hell. When you go to the hell, it is your choice. GOD HAS GIVEN YOU ALL PERFECTION. Pürëam idaà pürëam adaù pürëät pürëam udacyate, everything is complete, perfect, and because you are perfect, you have got the independence. But misusing that independence, you are imperfect”.

Srila Prabhupada – “Again, reviving your independence, you can become perfect, although you are imperfect now. Krishna consciousness movement means raising the imperfect to the perfect platform.

That is Krishna consciousness. Other fools, they say, “We are perfect now.” In a fallen condition also, they’re thinking perfect. That is Maya. Äsuréà räkñaséà caiva mohinéà prakåtià çritäù”.

Srila Prabhupada – “Krishna has already made you perfect. There is no doubt about it. Just like some of our students. All of a sudden, they deviate, go away. So what is that? Our movement is imperfect, or he’s imperfect?”

Hridayananda  – “He’s imperfect”.

Srila Prabhupada   – “He’s imperfect. Our movement is perfect. But he becomes imperfect by his misuse of independence. He thinks that “This is nice,” and goes to hell. What can be done? That independence is there. That is perfectness”.

Hridayananda  – “So in other words, these, uh, the people that argue like that, they, they actually are lazy. They don’t want to surrender to God. Then they blame God”.

Srila Prabhupada   – “Yes. Because they have become imperfect, therefore they are blaming God. “God is good”; they forget this. That is their imperfectness. One side, they say, “God is good.” Still, they’re blaming God. What is this nonsense? If He’s God, God is good, how can you blame Him? God is good; in all circumstances, He’s good. That is the meaning of good. Good does not mean that one time you are good and next time you are bad...”

Umapati  – “Well, the argument is that if God is so all-powerful, why does He let me fall? Why doesn’t He save me, save me from my own foolishness? Why doesn’t He...?”

Srila Prabhupada   – “Yes, He’s saving you, but you don’t carry His order, just like I say, “Chant sixteen rounds.” If you do not do it. What can I do? That is your fault”.

 Satsvarupa – “If God were to force us, there’d be no love”. (Conversation, Los Angeles, December 6, 1973)

Srila Prabhupada - "So, unless there is a possibility of misusing our free will, there is no question of freedom." - Dialectical Spiritualism, Critique of Descartes

Without that choice we are simply senseless Androids

Also tatastha s’akti refers to, and is, the jiva souls sovereignty as an independent ‘marginal’ living being (you and I) who have their own autonomous identity, personality, individuality and desires that manifest due to their own way of thinking, even in Goloka in the way one chooses to serve Krishna.

Therefore having the independence to choose is eternal, thus the marginal living entity without end exists independently, not in some place in-between the spiritual creation and the material creation, but rather, under the influence of free will where the marginal living entity can CHOOSE BETWEEN the imperishable superior energy (Serving Lord Krishna with the full memory and awareness of their endless nitya-siddha body), or take shelter in the inferior energy (mahat-tattva) as their secondary nitya-baddha condition that only acquires material perishable bodily forms or vessels from the dreams of Maha-Vishnu.

We are eternally under the jurisdiction of Krishna directly in Vaikuntha or indirectly in the mahat-tattva creation of Maha-Vishnu. All our facilities come from God. This is an important point to understand.

Although there is a paradox to all this or an apparent contradiction here, which is, even though the marginal living entities are independent thinkers, still they are always fully dependant on the Lords Superior (Krishna) or the controller of the inferior energy (Maha-Vishnu) to express their independent desires greed of selfishness to ones own desires or servitude and selflessness to Krishna.

We (the jiva-soul or tatastha-s’akti) have no beginning or end (never created) because we have always existed; the marginal living entities are not in region or place in creation.

The marginal plane IS the individual independent living beings, tatastha-s’akti therefore is NOT a position or area in creation but is rather the status of the marginal living entity whether in Goloka as their full potential nitya-siddha selfless body or in the mahat-tattva as nitya-baddha restricted selfish awareness.

The marginal living entity (tatastha s’akti) is simply the name for the jiva soul’s individual identity that eternally exists as an independent free thinking entities or beings that can choose to serve the Superior energy (Krishna) as their perpetual nitya-siddha body, or manifest their own awareness of existence as a delusional manifestation (nitya-baddha) that is covered by the inferior energy (fleeting material energy of subtle [ethereal] and gross [biological] bodily vessels) within the mahat-tattva creation (material creation or Cosmo’s) of Maha-Vishnu.

Srila Prabhupada – “The Vaishnavas are free of attachment to this world because generally the material world is accepted as an object of sense gratification. The Vaishnavas are not in favour of sense gratification; therefore, they are not attached to material activities”. Bhaktivedanta purport of the Eighty-seventh Chapter of Krsna, "Prayers by the Personified Vedas."

Srila Prabhupada  – “The Vaishnava accepts this material world according to the regulative principles of the Vedic injunctions. Since the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the original cause of everything, the Vaishnava sees everything in relationship with Krsna, even in this material world. By such advanced knowledge, everything becomes spiritualised. In other words, everything in the material world is already spiritual, but due to our lack of knowledge we see things as material”. AC Bhaktivedanta purport of the Eighty-seventh Chapter of Krsna, "Prayers by the Personified Vedas."

Everything in the material world (mahat tattva) is the dream of Maha-Vishnu, the material cosmos are His dreams and we can, due to free will and the ability to choose, enter His dreams of bodily vessels He has created in order to experience our own dreams, thoughts and desires without Krishna.

Both dreams (the imaginings of the spirit soul and the dreams of Maha-Vishnu) coincide with each other however, it is Maha-Vishnu who provides the facilities for all marginal living beings who have foolishly chosen to enter His mahat tattva dream domain as nitya-baddha to experience their own non-Krishna Conscious desires.

Therefore, from that perpetual unending place of no past or future (only the eternal presence Krishna Lila), the material creation is simply an illusion, a momentary dream that is real for a moment in time then disappears and fades.

Therefore, this place of ‘the dreaming’ is called the PERISHABLE mahat-tattva that is a real phenomenon in one corner of the Spiritual Sky yet is temporary.

Srila Prabhupada – “This material creation is the spirit soul’s dream, all existence in this world is the dream of Maha-Vishnu” Srimad Bhagavatam 4.29.83.

Srila Prabhupada –“This conception of the material world is very nicely explained by Srila Rupa Gosvami, who said that renunciation of this material world as illusory or false without knowledge that the material world is also the manifestation of the Supreme Lord is of no practical value”. Bhaktivedanta purport of the Eighty-seventh Chapter of Krsna, "Prayers by the Personified Vedas."

Srila Prabhupada - "The word varnam refers to the lustre of one's original identity. The original lustre of gold or silver is brilliant. Similarly, the original lustre of the living being, who is part of the sac-cid-ananda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1], is the lustre of ananda, or pleasure. Ānandamayo bhyāsāt. Every living entity has the right to become ānandamaya, joyful, because he is part of the sac-cid-ananda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1], Krishna. Why should the living being be put into tribulation because of dirty contamination by the material modes of nature? The living entity should become purified and regain his svarupa, his original identity" Srimad Bhagavatam 8.24.48

Srila Prabhupada  - "But his relationship with Krishna is never lost. Simply it is forgotten by the influence of Maya, so it may be regained or revived by the process of hearing the Holy Name " - Letter to Jagadisha April 25, 1970

The mahat-tattva is likened to a jail created by state for the sake of the criminals who are not fit to remain in Goloka (due to their own choose and desire). Only Krishna can create such a facility like the mahat-tattva (material creation) via His Maha-Vishnu expansion. He does so just to allow us souls the opportunity to think ourselves God and try to enjoy the material energy separate from Him.

The obvious problem when one denies God and chooses to do their own thing is that the so-called enjoyment in the mahat-tattva is illusory and perishable and cannot remain for long. Everything here is temporary and ends up full of misery and frustration. One works so hard to create a family fortune only to experience hardship, disease, old age and death.

Why has Krishna created a world that is temporary and full of duality and misery like the mahat-tattva?

The answer is simple, because He gives us the free will to choose to forever increase our love to Krishna in Vaikuntha, or use that free will and choose to attempt to enjoy separate from Him in the mahat-tattva material creation of Maha-Vishnu.

Krishna supplies us with the mahat-tattva creation from His expansion Maha-Vishnu.

He wants us to be happy and if we somehow believe going to the material world will make us happy, then He will facilitate our mistaken desires so we can learn for ourselves that this perishable creation only causes suffering.

Krishna wants us to come to our senses and realize we have made a mistake in coming to the material world and to thus return to our original home, the spiritual world of Goloka-Vrndavana.

The material energy pushes the conditioned nitya-baddha souls with frustrations due to its temporary nature so that they will someday again turn toward the Lord, who is within their hearts as the Supersoul, and thus again surrender unto Him and His pure representative and begin to wake up from the material dream.

The Lord says that anyone who thus surrenders unto Him will quickly return to Him. The Lord also assists the marginal living entities by sending His pure devotees to speak the knowledge of the spiritual world to them to again re-awaken them to their genuine eternal nitya-siddha position that is perpetually in Goloka even while their limited ‘awareness as nitya-baddha’ is in the mahat-tattva (material creation).

Krishna also presents the Vedic literature through His chosen representatives (that can be Vishnu-Tattva or jiva-tattva) to open their eyes with transcendental knowledge of who they really are in the bigger picture of Goloka and Vaikuntha that is outside of the mundane perishable, decaying material creation or mahat-tattva.

The Lord is so concerned for the marginal living entities trapped in ethereal and biological vessels in the material world, that He periodically descends from the spiritual world Himself in order to display His transcendental pastimes and attract the conditioned nitya-baddha souls back to their nitya-siddha Krishna Conscious body that is perpetually in His eternal abode known as Goloka-Vrndavana.

In other words Krishna wants all marginal living entities to again re-establish, regain and remember the ‘awareness’ of their ‘forever present’, full spiritual potential nitya-siddha ‘svarupa’ body that is ‘forever’ there in Goloka, due to the nature of the eternal presence of Goloka, even while one is ‘sub-consciously’ dreaming as nitya-baddha within the mahat-tattva or material dream of Maha-Vishnu.

Trivikrama asks Srila Prabhupada – “You were just saying that we are not fallen. Actually this is an illusion thinking that we are fallen. Yet I read ...

Srila Prabhupada  – “The same example. In dream I am not attacked by the tiger, but I am thinking, “Oh, tiger is there - It is simply dreaming condition”.

Trivikrama  – “But so many Vaishnavas are praying...

Srila Prabhupada  – “So as soon as you understand that “This is not... I am not in contact with tiger, it is all a dream,” then you are delivered. Similarly, as soon as you understand “All this material condition of life we are simply dreaming; I am actually servant of Krsna,” then you are liberated. That is Krsna conscious. If you keep in Krsna consciousness, that “I am eternal servant of Krsna,” then you are liberated. . . .

Trivikrama  – “This feeling that we have, that we are fallen, that we are very fallen...

Srila Prabhupada  - “That is also illusion. That is also illusion. You are fallen means you have got some certain desires except service of Krsna. Therefore the conclusion is that if you keep yourself tightly in Krsna’s service, there is no question of falling down or there is no question of Maya. You see?” Los Angeles, June 23, 1975

In this lecture Srila Prabhupada is very clear. Originally we have a direct personal relationship with Krsna in the spiritual world (As nitya-siddha). But when we want to take Krsna’s position, Krsna puts us into a dreaming state (As nitya-baddha).

In this dreaming state we forget our actual position and are thus free to act out our desire to become the supreme enjoyer. This state of forgetfulness and dreaming is sometimes characterized as being “fallen” from our position in the spiritual world. But Srila Prabhupada explains that in reality we are not fallen. We are simply in a dreaming state. Srila Prabhupada says that this is a very important point and asks the devotees to carefully consider it.

This concept that we are not really fallen offers an explanation for the statements that “no one falls from Vaikuntha.” We do not fall. We simply forget our original relationship of service to Krsna. Some might argue that we have eternally forgotten Krsna. But that is not supported by Srila Prabhupada’s purport to the text under consideration.

Srila Prabhupada    – “Tendency means the independence. So everyone can know that independence means one can use it properly, one can misuse it. That is independence. If you make it one way only, that you cannot become fall down, that is not independence. That is force. Therefore Krishna says, yathecchasi tathä kuru. “Now you do whatever you like.” Los Angeles, June 23, 1975