«Vṛndāvana
27th August, 1967

My dear Jananivasa,

Please accept my blessings. I am very glad to receive your letter of 8/20, and glad to hear that everything is going so nicely at our newest center. It all sounds very beautiful, and I am very anxious to come to you personally. Perhaps in October I shall go directly from here to San Francisco, and then to Santa Fe, before going to N.Y. About your question: The Spirit Soul is certainly eternal and changeless; and the fall is superficial, just like the relation between father and son cannot be broken ever. Now we are simply in a phase of forgetfulness, and this forgetfulness is called Maya. There is a nice example in the waning of the moon. To us the moon appears to be changing, but in fact the moon is always the same. So as eternal servitors of Krishna—our constitutional position—we fall down when we try to become the enjoyer, imitating Krishna. That is our downfall. Krishna is the Supreme Enjoyer, and we are constitutionally to be enjoyed by Him, and when we revive this constitutional position there is no more Maya. K.C. gives us the opportunity of rendering service to Krishna, and this service attitude only can replace us on our original position. Please therefore, continue to chant faithfully, and Krishna will reveal Himself, by His Causeless Mercy, and you will know everything automatically. I shall, of course always be ready and anxious to answer any question you have.

Your ever well-wisher,
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Svāmī»

Your next question, “Is a pure devotee eternally liberated and if so is he at any time a conditioned soul? We are eternally conditioned, but as soon as we surrender to Krishna do we then become eternally liberated? When Lord Christ appeared he seemed to be conditioned in his growth. Was he a specific incarnation or a conditioned soul who became liberated?” You are not eternally conditioned. You are eternally liberated but since we have become conditioned on account of our desire to enjoy materialistic way of life, from time immemorial, therefore it appears that we are eternally conditioned. Because we cannot trace out the history or the date when we became conditioned, therefore it is technically called eternally conditioned. Otherwise the living entity is not actually conditioned. A living entity is always pure. But he is prone to be attracted by material enjoyment and as soon as he agrees to place himself in material enjoyment, he becomes conditioned, but that is not permanent. Therefore a living entity is called on the marginal state, sometimes this side, sometimes that side. These are very intelligent questions. And I am very glad that you are putting such intelligent questions and trying to understand it. It is very good. But best thing is that one should know he is in conditioned life and try to cure it. When a man is in diseased condition he should try to get out of diseased condition without harassing his brain when the disease has begun. But it is to be understood that the disease is not our constant companion, it is temporary. So the best thing is to cure the disease, and not waste our time to find out the date when it began. Forgetfulness of Krishna is the disease, so let us keep ourselves always in Krishna Consciousness, and get out of the disease, that is healthy life.

(67-11-14)

Your questions are very nice. Yes, the Supersoul and soul both are unchanged. The difference is that in material contact, the soul appears to be changed. But the Supersoul is not affected by material contamination, therefore there is no sign of change. The change of soul is like that water becomes ice in contact with refrigerator. And as soon as there is temperature the ice again becomes water. Similarly the changing nature of the soul is just like change of water to ice. The tendency of ice is to melt and become water again. So due to contamination of matter, the soul by illusion identifies with material existence. But the tendency is to melt again to Krishna Consciousness. So when there is sufficient temperature in contact with bona fide Spiritual Master and devotees, the soul again becomes Krishna Conscious, like the water.

If someone is fortunate enough to find out a bona fide Spiritual Master, his life is successful. And to be fortunate, there must be sincerity, and Krishna will lead him to a bona fide Spiritual Master.

Purusa means God or Krishna. Atma, there is Paramatma and jīvatma. Both are atma because they are spiritual, but the living entities are called jīvatma. Jivatma means the small particle of atma which has tendency to fall down in the material atmosphere. He is called jīvatma. And Atma or Supersoul, Who never falls in material contamination, is called Paramatma or Supersoul. And because He does not fall under material illusion, His another Name is Acyuta—Acyuta means never fallen.

(68-11-12)

«The answer to your question about the marginal energy is that the jīva soul is always called marginal energy whether he is in the spiritual world or in the material world. There are instances where marginal energy jīva souls have fallen from the spiritual world, just like Jaya and Vijaya. So the potency to fall under the influence of the lower energy is always there. And thus the individual jīva soul is called as Krishna’s marginal energy.».

(68-12-02)

«Constitutionally every living entity, even if he is in the Vaikuntha Loka, has chance of falling down. Therefore the living entity is called marginal energy. But when the falldown has taken place for the conditioned soul is very difficult to ascertain. Therefore two classes are designated: eternally liberated and eternally conditioned. But for arguments sake, a living entity being marginal energy, he can’t be eternally conditioned. The Time is so unlimited that the conditioned souls appear to be eternally so, but from the philosophical view he cannot be eternally conditioned. Since we cannot trace out when we have become conditioned, there is no use of arguing on this point. Better to take care first how we can get rid of this conditional existence; as much as a patient should take care for treating his disease more, and less waste his time in finding out the cause of his disease.»

(69-10-27)

Regarding your questions concerning the spirit souls falling into Maya’s influence, it is not that those who have developed a passive relationship with Kṛṣṇa are more likely to fall into nescient activities. Usually anyone who has developed his relationship with Kṛṣṇa does not fall down in any circumstance, but because the independence is always there, the soul may fall down from any position or any relationship by misusing his independence. But his relationship with Kṛṣṇa 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 of Kṛṣṇa and then the devotee engages himself in the service of the Lord which is his original or constitutional position. The relationship of the living entity with Kṛṣṇa is eternal as both Kṛṣṇa and the living entity are eternal; the process is one of revival only, nothing new.

(70-02-27)

"Regarding your questions about how and from where did the conditioned souls fall, your first question if someone has a relationship with Lord Kṛṣṇa on Kṛṣṇaloka, does he ever fall down? The souls are endowed with minute independence as part of their nature and this minute independence may be utilized rightly or wrongly at any time, so there is always the chance of falling down by misuse of one’s independence. But those who are firmly fixed up in devotional service to Kṛṣṇa are making proper use of their independence and so they do not fall down."

(70-04-25)

The next question, about the living entities falling down in this material world are not from the impersonal brahman. Existence in the impersonal brahma is also within the category of non-Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Those who are in the brahman effulgence they are also in the fallen condition, so there is no question of falling down from a fallen condition. When fall takes place, it means falling down from the non-fallen condition.

The non-fallen condition is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So long one can maintain pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness he is not fallen down. As soon as he becomes out of Kṛṣṇa consciousness immediately he is fallen down. It does not matter where a living entity stays. In the material world also there are different stages of living conditions, and to remain in the brahman effulgence is also another phase of that fallen condition. Just like in the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated that conditioned souls by their pious activities are elevated to the higher planetary system, but as soon as the stock of pious activities is finished he again comes down on the earthly planet. Similarly those who are elevated beyond the planetary system to the brahman effulgence, they are also prone to fall down as much as a living entity from the higher planetary system.

As such those who are thinking that they are liberated by being situated in brahman effulgence are described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as impurely intelligent. In other words, they are actually not liberated, and because they are not actually liberated they again come down to the material world as much as a living entity elevated to the higher planetary system comes down to this earthly planet. So we do not accept anyone elevated to the brahman effulgence as actually liberated.

(70-06-13)

"Regarding your several questions: Where are the spirit souls coming from that are taking microbe bodies? It is not a matter of any particular body. These spirit souls and all spirit souls are coming from Vaikuntha, but in these material worlds they are taking various grades of bodies according to their material activities. There is no 'new' soul. 'New' and 'old' are due to this material body, but the soul is never born and never dies, so if there is no birth how there can be new soul?"

(70-07-09)

"We are all originally situated on the platform of Kṛṣṇa consciousness in our eternal personal relationship of love of Kṛṣṇa. But due to forgetfulness we become familiar with the material world or Maya."

(70-11-17)

"The central question you say is 'where is the soul and where does it come from?' That is not difficult to understand. We’ve already discussed how the soul is residing in the heart of the living entity and that it takes shelter after death in another body. Originally the soul comes from God. Just like a spark comes from fire, and when the spark falls down it appears to be extinguished. The spark soul originally comes from the spiritual world to the material world. In the material world he falls down into three different conditions which are called the modes of nature. Just like the spark of fire when it falls on dry grass and the fire quality continues. When the spark falls on the ground it cannot display its fiery manifestation unless the ground is favorably situated. Similarly when the spark falls on water it becomes extinguished. As such we find three kinds of living conditions. One is completely forgetful of his spiritual nature. One is almost forgetful but still there is an instinct of spiritual nature, and one is completely in search of spiritual perfection. There is a bona fide method for the achieving spiritual perfection by the spiritual spark soul and if he is properly guided then he is very easily sent back to home, back to Godhead where from originally he fell down."

(71-01-20)

"So far your question, the soul is fundamentally pure but he has an aptitude to come to the impure state of material contamination. He is therefore called tatastha or marginal. He has got the liberty of staying within the pure state or becoming contaminated. That is his choice. This marginal point can be understood in this way; just like you are standing on the shore of the sea. So you can remain on the land or sometimes you can jump into the water to enjoy as you will see on the beaches. So many young boys are enjoying. But that is dangerous at the same time. One who does not know swimming expertly well he may become drowned. Similarly the soul from the spiritual platform sometimes jumps over the material ocean of nescience. The Vedic knowledge gives him specific instruction how to swim over but if he is a rascal, he does not take the instruction through the bona fide representative, the spiritual master, and he becomes drowned. That is the position. The Vedic instruction is so nice that the soul, when he jumps over this material ocean, the Vedic instruction teaches him how to swim and come back again to the shore. This swimming process, according to Vedic instruction, is called sacrifice, charity and penance. One who learns these techniques of swimming over the ocean of nescience, he goes back to home, back to Godhead. One who does not take to this swimming process, he becomes drowned. In the Bhagavad-gītā this is stated iccha dvesa samutthena... sarge yanti parantapa which means deluded by desire to enjoy the material world and becoming envious of Krishna, one comes to this material world. (Bhagavad-gītā, 7.27). So read our literature profusely and you will get sufficient knowledge."

(71-10-09)

"As for your questions, do the fallen souls leave the spiritual world all at once or gradually, we can answer, do all the prisoners in the _____ free at once—no, some are coming, some are going."

(71-11-15)

"In answer to your several questions, first; what is meant by conditioned soul? Conditioned soul means one who has accepted something illusion as reality. Conditioned means that due to imperfect desires the spirit soul becomes dependent on material conditions for his satisfaction.

Your second question; how does he become conditioned when the jīvatma is eternal full of bliss and knowledge? The answer is that it is not the soul itself that becomes mixed with matter but it is his consciousness that becomes absorbed in trying to enjoy the matter. Out of desire to lord it over, the jīva soul forgets that he is eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss and identifies with the material energy. So it is the consciousness of the conditioned soul that is affected."

(73-05-09)

"Regarding your question about the difference between the mind and the soul, in the Bhagavad-gītā it is directly said that the mind is inferior energy in a subtle form, and soul, jīva, is superior energy. So they are completely distinct. Mind is not spiritual, but mind is a subtle material form. When the soul becomes captivated for enjoying the material world instead of rendering service to Krishna, that is the beginning of his falldown. When the living being thinks himself to be the enjoyer, that is called false ego. His constitutional position is to serve Krishna. So this false egotism degrades him to pollute the intelligence and the mind."

(75-09-28)

"You mention about the well-renown psychologist at Harvard who is interested in finding about man’s true nature. Man’s true nature is to render service. Originally the living entity was meant for rendering service to Kṛṣṇa and as soon as the living entity misuses this marginal position, he becomes conditioned by material nature."

(75-11-09)