Jiva Tattva

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All glories to Sri Guru and Gauranga!

 

The nature of the jiva must be understood from the vantage point of sri guru, sastra and sadhu lest misinformation pass as truth and that in turn is again accepted blindly without further inquiry as to its validity.

 

Because an individual has freedom does not imply that they will misuse it; there has to be another factor in play in order for such a scenario to arise. A key role in misuse of ones free will is environment. If the environment is conducive for the criminal mentality, then a misuse of freedom can be applied, but if the environment is not conducive to the criminal mentality, then there cannot arise the theme of misapplication of freedom.

 

In this case, a well-known fact is that maya or the material influence cannot appear where Krishna is present. If maya cannot deter an advanced devotee practicing sadhana bhakti, then how can she influence the hearts of nitya siddhas or devotees in the kingdom of God?

 

The kingdom of God is called Vaikuntha loka, or the world that is devoid of anxieties and fears. The fears of the mundane world are birth, death, old age and disease; such fears are not present in the spiritual world. The associates of the Lord are not afraid for they are with the Supreme Purifier. Just like the sun purifies anything in contact with it, similarly, the Lord purifies those in contact with him. He exudes purity, which influences all. Then what can maya do in such a purified, anxiety free zone? Yogamaya or the internal, spiritual potency predominates over the spiritual sky; mahamaya or the deluding potency predominates over the material sky.

 

In Bhakti Rasamrta Sindhu of Rupa Goswami, it is stated that devotees deride the concept of the four types of vaisnava liberation if devoid of service to the Supreme Lord. In other words, they have given up four personal desires that certainly entails great happiness for them. Of primary importance here is the fact that they would rather serve the Lord than seek personal self-interest.

 

An example of a devotee shunning personal desire that obstructed service to the Lord is Daruka, a servant of the Lord in Dwarka. Due to great ecstasy Daruka was unable to properly fan the Lord's body, because of this he greatly admonished himself.

 

Definitely out of the question for devotees of the Lord is impersonal liberation, which may be poetically glorified by some. Devotees of the Lord do not even contemplate such an idea. Rupa Goswami states in his book (Bhakti Rasamrta Sindhu) that even if impersonal liberation was multiplied a trillion fold, it would not in the least compare to even a particle of a drop of loving service to the Lord. If devotees never desire liberation, then what of material desires which are transient by nature and full of miseries. Sri Krishna Caitanya in the mood of a devotee has stated in one of his eight prayers that he desires no money, wife, children, wealth, fame - all he says he desires is the opportunity to perform more devotional service birth after birth whether that be in heaven or hell. The sole objective of the devotee is service to the Lord.

 

The Lord has three energies, antaranga (spiritual potency), bahiranga (material potency or avidya [knowledge covering] potency) and tatastha shaktis. Each potency has a location or domain of dominance. The spiritual potency predominates over the spiritual sky, the material potency dominates the material sky and the marginal potency is in between, or the demarcation between both material and spiritual worlds. The jiva or living entity is said to originate from the tatastha shakti or the marginal potency. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur has said in his commentary to Brahma Samhita: "This potency has another name i.e. tatastha or marginal potency, being located on the line demarcating the spheres of the spiritual and mundane potencies." (p. 37)

 

The jiva having its origin in the marginal field has the medial adaptability to both the mundane and spiritual planes. Having chosen the mundane world, its inherent nature as a servitor of God is misplaced being covered by the avidya potency.

 

"The brahmajyoti-spiritual effulgence-is just like sunshine; as the sunshine is full of molecular shinning particles, so the brahmajyoti is full of minute portions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Out of that unlimited expansion of minute portions of the Supreme Lord, some are covered by the influence of material nature, whereas others are free." (KRSNA [from the great classic of India series] Ch. 21, p. 176 by Swami Bhaktivedanta)

 

"This oversoul's intermediate energy brings forth the individual souls analogously to the rays of the sun." (Brahma Samhita by Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, purport to verse 1)

 

"The sole potency of Krsna which is spiritual, functioning as Krsna's own proper power, has manifested His pastimes of Goloka and Gokula. By her grace individual souls who are constituents of the marginal potency can have admission into even those pastimes." (Brahma Samhita by Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, purport to verse 6)

 

In Bhakti Rasamrta Sindhu, there is a reference to the devotees union with the Lord; therein is listed three types of meeting: sthiti (or steady association with Lord), tusti (or satisfaction of seeing the Lord after a long time) and siddhi (or meeting the Lord for the first time).

 

From this we see that there are devotees from this world who achieve Krishna's association for the first time.

 

"The mature devotees, who have completely executed Krsna Consciousness, are immediately transferred to the material universe where Krsna is appearing. In that universe the devotees get their first opportunity to associate with Krsna personally and directly. The training goes on, as we see in the Vrndavana lila of Krsna within this planet." (Appreciating Sri Vrndavana Dhama by Mahanidhi Swami p. 180

)

 

"The sadhana-siddhas are novices to Sri Krsna's pastimes and have truly not met Him. Their purva-raga is a consequence of associating with the eternal associates." (Venu Gita p.52 by Sivarama Swami)

 

It can thus be concluded that the jiva does not fall from Vaikuntha.