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Our Original Position Śrīla Prabhupāda and the Vaiṣṇava Siddhānta
Second Part: Other Evidences and Arguments
<< 13. A Letter (Harikeśa dāsa Adhikārī) >>
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| by Harikeśa dāsa Adhikārī
| | The following is a letter from Harikeśa dāsa Adhikārī to one of the devotees in his zone.
| | September 23, 1995
Dear Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.
| | Just recently I received a letter from one of my disciples who relates that you have been speaking about the subject of the origin of the jīva with some devotees. It was told to me that you were speaking in favor of the point that the jīva never falls from the spiritual world, and it was quoted that you said that this “fact” was “settled” in Māyāpur this year. Assuming that what the devotee told me is true, as he said that he heard this all with his own ears, I would like to inform you of some points that might be of interest to you.
| | Perhaps you do not know that the GBC Body addressed this issue this year in its meetings. I am sure that you do not know this, because I cannot believe that you would preach against the entire GBC Body. That you have said that the issue was settled in Māyāpur was correct, but your understanding of what the settlement was may be wrong. Perhaps the GBC resolutions were not posted for you to read? I sent out the most important resolutions to all the temple presidents on COM from Māyāpur before I left, and I thought that everyone was informed of these resolutions. Perhaps this did not happen. Therefore, I am including herein the exact GBC resolution about the fall of the jīva. Please read this carefully. It is as follows:
| | 79) THAT: 1. Vaikuṇṭha is that place from which no one ever falls down. The living entity belongs to Lord Kṛṣṇa’s marginal potency (taṭastha-śakti). On this we all agree. The origin of the conditioned life of the souls now in this material world is undoubtedly beyond the range of our direct perception. We can therefore best answer questions about that origin by repeating the answers Śrīla Prabhupāda gave when such questions were asked of him:
| | The original home of the living entity and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the spiritual world. In the spiritual world both the Lord and the living entities live together very peacefully. Since the living entity remains engaged in the service of the Lord, they both share a blissful life in the spiritual world. However, when the living entity, misusing his tiny independence, wants to enjoy himself, he falls down into the material world.
(Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.28.54, purport)
| | No ISKCON devotee shall present or publish any contrary view as conclusive in any class or seminar or any media (print, video, electronic, etc.).
| | 2. In resolving philosophical controversies, the teachings, instructions and personal example of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda shall be the first and primary resource for ISKCON devotees. We should understand Vedic literature, the writings of previous ācāryas, and the teachings of current bona fide ācāryas outside ISKCON through the teachings of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Where we perceive apparent differences, we may attribute them to our own lack of understanding or (more rarely) to “differences among ācāryas.” When ācāryas apparently differ, we shall refer to what is taught by His Divine Grace, our Founder-ācārya.
| | 3. The GBC rejects the speculation that Śrīla Prabhupāda, while teaching about the original position of the jīva, did not mean what he said. The GBC finds this speculation unwarranted, poorly supported, unintentionally offensive to Śrīla Prabhupāda, and, as a precedent, dangerous.
| | The GBC therefore directs that, effective immediately, the book In Vaikuṇṭha Not Even the Leaves Fall shall be prohibited from sale and distribution at all ISKCON centers and by all ISKCON entities. The GBC members and temple presidents shall be responsible for carrying out this resolution. The GBC appreciates Satya Nārāyaṇa dāsa’s willingness to withdraw the book.
| | 80) THAT the GBC suggests that devotees interested in apparent logical contradictions surrounding the “fall of the jīva” read the following paper on the topic, which Śrīla Prabhupāda had sent to devotees in Australia in 1972 to resolve controversies that arose among them about this topic. The paper came as an attachment to a letter from Śrīla Prabhupāda to Madhudviṣa dāsa dated June 6, 1972.
| | Crow and Tal-fruit Logic
| | We never had any occasion when we were separated from Kṛṣṇa. Just like one man is dreaming and he forgets himself. In dream he creates himself in different forms: now I am the King discussing like that. This creation of himself is as seer and subject matter or seen, two things. But as soon as the dream is over, the “seen” disappears. But the seer remains. Now he is in his original position.
| | Our separation from Kṛṣṇa is like that. We dream this body and so many relationships with other things. First the attachment comes to enjoy sense gratification. Even with Kṛṣṇa desire for sense gratification is there. There is a dormant attitude for forgetting Kṛṣṇa and creating an atmosphere for enjoying independently. Just like at the edge of the beach, sometimes the water covers, sometimes there is dry sand, coming and going. Our position is like that, sometimes covered, sometimes free, just like at the edge of the tide. As soon as we forget, immediately the illusion is there. Just like as soon as we sleep, dream is there.
| | We cannot say therefore that we are not with Kṛṣṇa. As soon as we try to become Lord, immediately we are covered by Maya. Formerly we were with Kṛṣṇa in His lila or sport. But this covering of Maya may be of very, very, very, very long duration, therefore many creations are coming and going. Due to this long period of time it is sometimes said that we are ever-conditioned. But this long duration of time becomes very insignificant when one actually comes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Just like in a dream we are thinking very long time, but as soon as we awaken we look at our watch and see it has been a moment only. Just like with Kṛṣṇa’s friends, they were kept asleep for one year by Brahma, but when they woke up and Kṛṣṇa returned before them, they considered that only a moment had passed.
| | So this dreaming condition is called non-liberated life, and this is just like a dream. Although in this material calculation it is a long, long period, as soon as we come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness then this period is considered as a second. For example, Jaya and Vijaya. They had their lila with Kṛṣṇa, but they had to come down for their little mistake. They were given mukti, merging into the brahmasayujya after being killed three times as demons. This brahmasayujya mukti is non-permanent. Every living entity wants pleasure, but brahmasayujya is minus pleasure. There is eternal existence only. So when they do not find transcendental bliss, they fall down to make a compromise with material bliss. Just like Vivekananda founded so many schools and hospitals. So even Lord Brahma, he is still material and wants to lord it over. He may come down to become a germ, but then he may rise up to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and go back to home, back to Godhead. This is the position.
| | So when I say Yes, there is eternal lila with Kṛṣṇa, that means on the evidence of Jaya-Vijaya. Unless one develops full devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, he goes up only up to brahmasayujya but falls down. But after millions and millions of years of keeping oneself away from the lila of the Lord, when one comes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness this period becomes insignificant, just like dreaming. Because he falls down from brahmasayujya, he thinks that may be his origin, but he does not remember that before that even he was with Kṛṣṇa. So the conclusion is that whatever may be our past, let us come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness and immediately join Kṛṣṇa. Just like with a diseased man, it is waste of time to try to find out how he has become diseased, better to spend time curing the disease.
| | On the top of the tree there is a nice tal-fruit. A crow went there and the fruit fell down. Some panditas—big, big learned scholars—saw this and discussed: The fruit fell due to the crow agitating the limb. No, the fruit fell simultaneously with the crow landing and frightened the crow so he flew away. No, the fruit was ripe and the weight of the crow landing broke it from the branch, and so on and so on. What is the use of such discussions? So whether you were in the brahmasayujya or with Kṛṣṇa in His lila, at the moment you are in neither, so the best policy is to develop your Kṛṣṇa consciousness and go there, never mind what is your origin.
| | Brahmasayujya and Kṛṣṇa lila—both may be possible, but when you are coming down from brahmasayujya or when you are coming down from Kṛṣṇa lila, that remains a mystery. But at the present moment we are in Maya’s clutches, so at present our only hope is to become Kṛṣṇa conscious and go back to home, back to Godhead. The real position is servant of Kṛṣṇa, and servant of Kṛṣṇa means in Kṛṣṇa lila. Directly or indirectly, always we are serving Kṛṣṇa’s lila. Even in dream. Just like we cannot go out of the sun when it is daytime, so where is the chance of going out of Kṛṣṇa lila? The cloud may be there, it may become very gray and dim, but still the sunlight is there, everywhere, during the daytime. Because I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, I am always connected. My finger, even though it may be diseased, remains part and parcel of my body. Therefore, we try to treat it, cure it, because it is part and parcel. So Kṛṣṇa comes Himself when we forget Him, or He sends His representative.
| | Awakening or dreaming, I am the same man. As soon as I awaken and see myself, I see Kṛṣṇa. Cause and effect are both Kṛṣṇa. Just like cotton becomes thread and thread becomes cloth, still, the original cause is cotton. Therefore, everything is Kṛṣṇa in the ultimate sense. When we cannot contact Kṛṣṇa personally, we contact His energies. So there is no chance to be outside Kṛṣṇa’s lila. But differences we see under different conditions. Just like in the pool of water and in the mirror the same me is reflecting, but in different reflections. One is shimmering, unsteady, one is clear and fixed. Except for being in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we cannot see our actual position rightly, therefore the learned man sees all living entities as the same parts and parcels of Kṛṣṇa. Material existence is impersonal because my real personality is covered. But we should think that because I am now covered by this clay, I am diseased, and we should think that I must get to business to get myself uncovered, not wonder how I got this way. Now the fruit is there, take it and enjoy, that is your first business. God is not bound by cause. He can change, He is the Cause of all Causes. Now don’t waste your time with this “Kaka taliya nyaya,” crows and tal-fruit logic.
| | Therefore, please do not speak about your understanding of this issue, since it is different from what Śrīla Prabhupāda personally instructed us, and it is in direct disobedience to the order of the GBC. It is very important that you follow this resolution, otherwise you will be creating factions within ISKCON of those who believe one thing and those who believe another thing. Furthermore, when you preach something against that which was decided by the GBC body, you create a very bad atmosphere and neglect the instruction in Prabhupāda’s will, wherein he states that the GBC is the ultimate managing authority of ISKCON. We cannot have devotees within ISKCON preaching against the GBC resolutions in public or private forums. Especially when one is a guru and assumes the position of an absolute authority somehow superior to the authority of the GBC, which is also against Prabhupāda’s expressed desire. Since you are not superior to the GBC, you should follow the resolutions of the GBC and immediately stop such preaching, publicly or privately. You should also correct the misunderstanding that you have created amongst the devotees, so that others do not have to come in and disgrace you publicly by showing how you are wrong.
| | As far as your philosophical proofs, it seems that you are mainly following the lead of some devotees in Vṛndāvana who have said that the ācāryas do not agree with what Prabhupāda has taught us. I would like to briefly address this issue to give you something to think about. A more comprehensive document is being prepared by some GBC men. You will be sent this document when it is ready.
| | When some quote the so-called fact that Jīva Gosvāmī does not support the idea that we fell from Vaikuṇṭha, they usually do it on the basis of two significant phrases. The first is the usage of the word anādi, which literally means beginningless. Simply on the basis of the literal meaning of this word, they declare that there is no time when we ever entered into the material world; we have always been here. However, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, in his book Jīva-dharma (as translated by Sarvabhāvana dāsa), has given a marvelous definition of what anādi actually means, which will shock you. It is as follows:
| | “Servitorship to Kṛṣṇa is jīva’s eternal religion. When jīva forgets this truth, he is enslaved by māyā; from that moment on jīva turns away from Kṛṣṇa—he rejects Him. From the time jīva comes into this material world he has already rejected Kṛṣṇa, and so there are no historical statements recording his falldown. This truth justifies the use of the phrase—anādi bahirmukha—‘eternally turned away from the spiritual realm.’...
| | “The instant jīva rejects Kṛṣṇa and embraces material existence, his eternal religion becomes perverted.”
| | Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, a previous ācārya, has clearly stated that anādi means that the turning away from Kṛṣṇa did not occur in the material world and thus is not bound by time. It happened in the spiritual world, which is beyond material time, and thus there is no time when it occurred according to our material definitions. Thus we use the word anādi.
| | Furthermore, those who like to quote Jīva Gosvāmī use a verse from his Bhagavat-sandarbha to prove that the jīva never falls. The exact words used by Jīva Gosvāmī are tato ’skhalanam. They say that this means that the jīva never falls. Jīva Gosvāmī says that it is so because the living entities are protected by the pastime umbrella of the Lord’s mercy and thus they do not fall.
| | When one goes to the Sanskrit-English dictionary and looks up skhalanam, he finds that there is only one definition of the word. The dictionary says, “slipping or shaking.” When the “a” is placed before it, it negates the definition, so askhalanam means,”not slipping or shaking.” One can also say that this means “not falling,” as that is not against the words of the dictionary, but one must only understand this in terms of the original dictionary definitions.
| | What this means is that no one slips, shakes and then falls from the spiritual world. We all understand that to fall by shaking or slipping means to have an accident and thus fall down, or some external agency influences us and causes us to fall down, or an internal diseased condition such as dizziness or fainting and so on influences us and causes us to fall although we don’t want to. These are the direct understandings of the words, “shaking” and “slipping.”
| | What this all obviously means is that no one can be forced to fall from the spiritual sky by any means, since Kṛṣṇa is protecting the souls with His umbrella of mercy. There are no accidental falldowns from the spiritual sky. Therefore Prabhupāda said in his books that Jaya and Vijaya’s falldown was an exception because the Lord wished them to help Him enjoy His pastimes. Again, in the Seventh Canto Prabhupāda said, “otherwise it is a fact that no one falls from Vaikuṇṭha.” Thus no one falls accidentally from Vaikuṇṭha. Therefore, when someone comes to the material world from Vaikuṇṭha, he does so because the Lord wishes it, as is the case with Jaya and Vijaya, or because the living entity wishes it, as is our case.
| | No one falls from the spiritual sky, but we can “leap” or “jump” into the material world as we like. Just like when someone wants to commit suicide and is standing on the edge of the building ready to drop. We do not say that he fell off, we say that he jumped off, intentionally, with the purpose to end his life. It is a conscious act. It is not, of course, done with full knowledge, since that unfortunate person does not know that this is not a solution and that he will become a ghost and remain in the same mental condition as before. So, since we are not possessing all knowledge, as our quantity of knowledge is not equal to the Lord’s but is very minute, we are not aware of the full implications of our falling into the material world when we jump. But we definitely turn away from the Lord, as Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has said, and as Prabhupāda has said hundreds of times in his books, letters, lectures and conversations.
| | Now one may say that since the falldown from the spiritual world is not the siddhānta (which is not correct, but just accepting the point for the sake of argument), then Prabhupāda could not have meant it when he said that we fall from the spiritual sky, because Prabhupāda could not have said anything against the siddhānta, or if he did, it was for the sake of preaching. One speculates that if we were to hear that we were always in the material world, we would blame Kṛṣṇa for our fate and thus lose our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Therefore Prabhupāda was trying to save us from this offense by telling us a little story to set our minds in the desired devotional direction.
| | Besides the fact that saying such a thing is directly a great offense to Śrīla Prabhupāda, and Prabhupāda himself would be furious to hear his disciples speculating in this way about his motives, there is another point that is important for you to understand. If indeed it were true that Prabhupāda wanted us to believe something for our own good and for the good of the preaching, then why are you now preaching against Prabhupāda’s mood and desire? Remember that the bona fide disciple will accept the words of the guru as absolute in all circumstances. If the guru tells the disciple that a rope is a snake, the disciple will respond, “Yes, it is a snake.” And if the guru then says, “No, it is a rope,” the disciple will agree. This is a basic principle of obedience to the spiritual master. Of course, Western devotees do not generally have so much faith in their spiritual master and will be so bold as to contradict what he said on the basis of their own meager intelligence, but those who are faithful to their guru will never accept such a thing.
| | Consider this, If Prabhupāda wanted his disciples to believe something, then shouldn’t you believe that, since you are his disciple? If Prabhupāda wanted that everyone in ISKCON understand like this because it was for their advancement, then shouldn’t we go along with Prabhupāda’s desire? What has happened in the meantime that allows us to think that Prabhupāda did something wrong and now we have to correct it? Why are you preaching against the desire of your Guru Mahārāja? I don’t understand it. You say that Prabhupāda misrepresented the siddhānta for the sake of the preaching, which is a very serious accusation indeed and which, if wrong, will surely cause you intense spiritual difficulty in the future. You are exposing Prabhupāda to public criticism. You are also working against him. One cannot publicly (or privately) disagree with one’s spiritual master, thinking that one knows what is better for ISKCON, for this is an offense. Why are you trying to implicate yourself in such an act? If Prabhupāda has stated something for your own good, then why are you now trying to overturn that? Do you think it will be for your own good? What auspiciousness can come from this?
| | Therefore I am requesting you to please stop trying to work against the desires of your spiritual master. Do not become so intelligent that you think you know what is better for you and for ISKCON than Śrīla Prabhupāda. As Śrīla Prabhupāda once said, “Right or wrong, my Guru Mahārāja was always right.” And besides, I don’t think that anyone has yet proved that Prabhupāda was wrong in stating that we fall from the spiritual sky. All the so-called “evidence” is not convincing and besides, much of it is mistranslated and misunderstood. As for me, I stick to Prabhupāda’s expressed statements. Since ISKCON is Śrīla Prabhupāda’s movement and he is the Founder-ācārya, if he wants me to believe that I fell from the spiritual sky, and even if I do not understand that fully, since it is his movement and he is the Founder-ācārya, I had better agree with him or else my status as his disciple, as an authority, indeed, as a spiritual master, is void.
| | Please cooperate with the GBC. Nothing auspicious will come to you otherwise.
| | I hope this meets you well and happy.
Your servant,
Harikeśa dāsa Adhikārī
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NOTAS
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