The Super Ecstatic Ultimate Journey
Today we are on the road again on another circle-the-globe lecture tour. Our first stop will be in London where I will be giving a Bhagavad-gita class in the presence of Sri Sri Radha-Londonisvara. While such travels in the service of Krishna certainly are ecstatic, meaningful, and significant, even more ecstatic, meaningful, and significant is the inward journey of the soul on the pathway back to home, back to Godhead. This is the journey that each of us should be making at every moment. Every day we should see how we can make progress on the ultimate journey, the inward journey. Every day we should endeavor to go deeper into transcendental meditation on the holy names of Krishna. We should strive for better, more loving relationships with our spiritual master and the devotees. We should try to improve our understanding of Lord Sri Krishna's transcendental teachings. And above all, each day we must strive to become more and more surrendered to Krishna.
Srimate Sankarshana das Adhikarin iti namine
Dear Srila Gurudeva,
Please accept my humble obeisances
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
In reference to the "Thought for the Day" of 11 of May 2012, you gave nice evidence from Srila Prabhupada confirming that we were originally in the spiritual world but decided to try and enjoy separately from Krishna and thus came to the material world. Not as some say that we come originally from some place situated in between the material and spiritual worlds and that we chose to come to the material world instead of the spiritual world.
I came across a purport of Srila Prabhupada's a couple of years ago and noted it to ask you for clarification. Just in the recent past it has come up in Bhagavatam class and the speaker used it as evidence that no one falls from the spiritual world, and that we do come from the in between place.
Srila Prabhupada states in his purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 7.1.35:
"It is a fact that no one falls from Vaikuntha."
Can you kindly please kindly illuminate how we are to understand this?
Your servant
Rupa Manjari devi dasi
On one hand Srila Prabhupada states:
"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 wants to enjoy himself, he falls down into the material world."
--purport to SB 4.28.54
And on the other hand he states, as you have pointed out:
"It is a fact that no one falls from Vaikuntha."
So how are we to understand that both principles, fall and no fall, can operate simultaneously? This is the question.
The answer is that the living entity's fall down into this material world is only apparent. This is confirmed by Srila Prabhupada, who has stated, "So this dreaming condition is called non-liberated life, and this is just like a dream." The fallen jiva is simply dreaming himself to be something other than Krishna' servant and to be somewhere else besides Krishna's kingdom. He is imagining himself to be a king, a pauper, a demigod, a dog, or whatever in the 8,400,000 species of life. As long as he identifies with the dream he will suffer like hell. But when he wakes up from his dream, which seems to be going on for all of eternity, he will realize that his entire sojourn was a non-event, an imagination only, that he never really left Krishna's kingdom, and that it is now time for him to pick up where he left off in the transcendental pastimes of Krishna.
A crude analogy to help us understand this difficult concept is flying from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles, USA on Qantas Flight #107. This flight departs from Sydney at 10:00 am and arrives in Los Angeles on the same day at 6:35 am. This is 3 hours and 25 minutes before it departed. How is this possible? How can one possibly arrive in Los Angeles before he even left from Sydney? This happens because Flight #107 crosses the international date line going east.
In the same way there is another date line, a much more powerful date line that separates the material and spiritual worlds. When one crosses this date line returning tothe spiritual sky, even though he has passed innumerable millions and billions of years in the material world as an eternally conditioned soul, he will arrive back in the spiritual world just at that moment when he left it without even the slightest gap. He will seamlessly pick up where he left off in Krishna's pastimes as an eternally liberated soul. So in this way he fell down and he did not fall down, and the fall/no fall paradox is resolved.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Srila Prabhupada Takes Darshan of Sri Sri Radha Londonisvara
Answers by Citing the Vedic Version
Question: How to Resolve the Fall/No Fall Paradox?
Nama Om Visnu-padaya Krsna-presthaya bhule taleSrimate Sankarshana das Adhikarin iti namine
Dear Srila Gurudeva,
Please accept my humble obeisances
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
In reference to the "Thought for the Day" of 11 of May 2012, you gave nice evidence from Srila Prabhupada confirming that we were originally in the spiritual world but decided to try and enjoy separately from Krishna and thus came to the material world. Not as some say that we come originally from some place situated in between the material and spiritual worlds and that we chose to come to the material world instead of the spiritual world.
I came across a purport of Srila Prabhupada's a couple of years ago and noted it to ask you for clarification. Just in the recent past it has come up in Bhagavatam class and the speaker used it as evidence that no one falls from the spiritual world, and that we do come from the in between place.
Srila Prabhupada states in his purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 7.1.35:
"It is a fact that no one falls from Vaikuntha."
Can you kindly please kindly illuminate how we are to understand this?
Your servant
Rupa Manjari devi dasi
Answer: Arrive Back in Goloka Just When You Left
Prabhupada often states that we fell from the spiritual world, and he also has stated that no one falls from Vaikuntha. How to understand this? This is the fall/no fall paradox. Paradox means although it is apparently contradictory, it is nonetheless true.On one hand Srila Prabhupada states:
"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 wants to enjoy himself, he falls down into the material world."
--purport to SB 4.28.54
And on the other hand he states, as you have pointed out:
"It is a fact that no one falls from Vaikuntha."
So how are we to understand that both principles, fall and no fall, can operate simultaneously? This is the question.
The answer is that the living entity's fall down into this material world is only apparent. This is confirmed by Srila Prabhupada, who has stated, "So this dreaming condition is called non-liberated life, and this is just like a dream." The fallen jiva is simply dreaming himself to be something other than Krishna' servant and to be somewhere else besides Krishna's kingdom. He is imagining himself to be a king, a pauper, a demigod, a dog, or whatever in the 8,400,000 species of life. As long as he identifies with the dream he will suffer like hell. But when he wakes up from his dream, which seems to be going on for all of eternity, he will realize that his entire sojourn was a non-event, an imagination only, that he never really left Krishna's kingdom, and that it is now time for him to pick up where he left off in the transcendental pastimes of Krishna.
A crude analogy to help us understand this difficult concept is flying from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles, USA on Qantas Flight #107. This flight departs from Sydney at 10:00 am and arrives in Los Angeles on the same day at 6:35 am. This is 3 hours and 25 minutes before it departed. How is this possible? How can one possibly arrive in Los Angeles before he even left from Sydney? This happens because Flight #107 crosses the international date line going east.
In the same way there is another date line, a much more powerful date line that separates the material and spiritual worlds. When one crosses this date line returning tothe spiritual sky, even though he has passed innumerable millions and billions of years in the material world as an eternally conditioned soul, he will arrive back in the spiritual world just at that moment when he left it without even the slightest gap. He will seamlessly pick up where he left off in Krishna's pastimes as an eternally liberated soul. So in this way he fell down and he did not fall down, and the fall/no fall paradox is resolved.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
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