A Higher Stage Of Awareness

[suchandra]

"Everything can be neatly resolved, but only if we are prepared to go to a higher stage of awareness." Clarifying points by Chitraketu prabhu, Japan.

 

Actually He Has Not Fallen

 

 

BY: CHITRAKETU DASA

 

Mar 22, JAPAN (SUN) —

Sometimes we go to Vrindavan, and then we return. We have visited the place and imbibed some of the atmosphere, yet we return. Srila Prabhupada says, "How can you explain this?" So it seems that we can go and come back. Krishna Himself left Vrindavan, although He never leaves Vrindavan, "How is that?"

 

The Vedas recommend the performance of sacrifice for elevation to the heavenly planets, "Why do they do that? Why not get straight to the point?" Jaya and Vijaya apparently fell, although Srila Prabhupada states clearly that they never lost their spiritual consciousness, the whole thing was an arrangement of lila. The same applies to Maharaja Citraketu, even though he was cursed to become a demon.

 

The story of Vrtrasura is not a story about a conditioned soul, and Tulasi, although superficially cursed, arrived in the material world to perform the highest service that any devotee could perform, namely to sanctify our food offerings to the Lord, and be constantly present for worship as a pure devotee of the Lord, the purest, the highest.

 

The jiva souls actually emanate from three different sources: one source is Lord Balarama Himself; those jivas are eternally liberated and never fall down. Another source is Lord Sankarshana; those jivas are also eternally liberated and live in the Vaikuntha planets, whereas those emanating from Lord Balarama live in Goloka. These jivas are akshara. The third source of jivas is Lord MahaVishnu; these jivas have inherent choice, as do all jivas, but are prone to misuse it due to their sleepiness and unevolved condition. When they come into manifestation, they choose between domination or dedication. They don't fall from Vaikuntha.

The highest truth, however, states that there is no such thing as a material world; it is just a beguiling dream. And there is no such thing as a fall; it is merely illusion. The jiva, because it belongs to the Lord's superior energy, cannot be covered by material nature, it only appears to be so. Does anyone have any objection?

 

Everything can be neatly resolved, but only if we are prepared to go to a higher stage of awareness. From the roof, the chaos on the street doesn't look so chaotic; we see the flow of traffic, the intersections, the lights and so on from a higher perspective. I object to being forced to preach that the jivas fall from Vaikuntha, as much as I objected to the Zonal Acarya mess, and the present appointment of weak, immature devotees to the post of guru. Why is everyone so keen to establish the Fall theory?

 

If the Lord wants to perform lila, He creates the illusions accordingly. Without the reality of the illusion, where is the fun in the game? The idea of fall is another illusion. Nothing is outside of the arena of the Lord's pastimes. In the material world, He enjoys killing demons and reclaiming the "fallen" conditioned souls. We are here to assist in his lila. If He enjoys reclaiming fallen conditioned souls, then we, as his eternal servants, are more than happy to oblige, knowing it to be the Lord's game.

 

One-sided perspectives on transcendental issues should always be avoided. Here is Srila Prabhupada:

• "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 Krishna in His lila, at the moment you are in neither, so the best policy is to develop your Krishna consciousness and go there, never mind what is your origin.
  
  
  Brahmasayujya and Krishna lila--both may be possible, but when you are coming down from Brahmasayujya or when you are coming down from Krishna 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 Krishna conscious and go back to Home, back to Godhead. The real position is servant of Krishna, and servant of Krishna means in Krishna lila. Directly or indirectly, always we are serving Krishna'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 Krishna lila? The cloud may be there, it may become very grey and dim, but still the sunlight is there, everywhere, during the daytime. Because I am part and parcel of Krishna, 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 Krishna comes Himself when we forget Him, or He sends His representative."

God has no rival. There is no Devil, except when Krishna wishes it to appear so, since nothing exists independently from the Cause of all causes. Trying to regulate what people are to believe is a crime, however. Srila Prabhupada worked from the platform of intention and inspiration, which is a far higher level than doctrine. Buddha inspired people to be non-violent, a much needed preliminary step to spiritual understanding, though his teaching was thoroughly bogus. In this way, by careful study and deliberation we can come to a higher understanding.

 

If I say many contradictory things, then I say "actually...", that means that "now I am presenting the truth". I know that we use "actually" in so many contexts these days. I tend to overuse it, but actually, "actually" is used to introduce conclusion. So if Srila Prabhupada says, "Actually we are not fallen. There cannot be any fallen,” I think we can take it that he is presenting the final word in the matter. (See Prabhupada’s Tokyo lecture April 20, 1972.)