 | The following is a selection of quotes from Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s Prema-pradīpa and Śrī Caitanya Śikṣāmṛtam. It further shows how again and again Śrīla Bhaktivinoda confirms that we fall from the spiritual world. The quotes are taken from the translation of Kuśakratha dāsa.
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“When he is imprisoned in the material world, the spirit soul does not lose his original spiritual form, the form he had in the spiritual world of Vaikuṇṭha. However, because of contact with matter the imprisoned soul loses the memory of his original spiritual form in Vaikuṇṭha. Still, his original spiritual form does not cease to exist. The soul’s faith, desire and happiness are then directed toward matter. The soul’s rasas, which were originally manifested in the spiritual world, are then perverted and reflected into the pains, pleasures and various other states in the material world. What do I call perverted reflections? When the original pure nature is transformed and the result is different from the original nature, that is called a perverted reflection. Therefore within the perverted reflection the pure original may also be seen. Material happiness and other material rasas are perverted reflections of the soul’s original spiritual rasas.”
(Prema-pradīpa, p. 83)
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“The soul’s original nature (the nature of the liberated soul) becomes reflected in the mind of the soul imprisoned in the world of matter. When the rebellious soul turns away from the Supreme Lord, the spiritual love that is part of the soul’s original nature becomes changed into love for the objects of the material senses.”
(Prema-pradīpa, p. 89)
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“The individual soul naturally resides in Vaikuṇṭha. If he somehow comes to the material world, the individual soul brings with him his spiritual form made of cit. Pervertedly reflected in the material world those things of cit are called by the name ‘matter.’”
(Prema-pradīpa, p. 96)
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“When we are imprisoned in the material world we search for what had been in the Vaikuṇṭha-rasas.”
(Prema-pradīpa, p. 96)
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“They (conditioned souls) became bound even before coming to the material nature. Therefore, their bondage is called anādi, and they are called nitya-baddha.”
(Śrī Caitanya Śikṣāmṛtam, p. 48)
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“The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Lord of māyā but jīvas are subordinate to māyā. (Therefore, any living entity, at any time, can become influenced by māyā.)”
(Śrī Caitanya Śikṣāmṛtam, p. 48)
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| “If we accept that the jīvas (nitya-baddha jīvas) are created with material characteristics, then Māyāvāda creeps in and establishes itself. Jīvas are pure spiritual entities. Due to his taṭasthā nature, he is susceptible to be bound by māyā. That happens only when he forgets his constitutional position as Kṛṣṇa’s servant.”
(Śrī Caitanya Śikṣāmṛtam, p. 49)
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