Q&A With Srila Bhakti Bibudha Bodhayan Maharaj

July 5, 2003

Question: What do the Acaryas and scriptures of Gaudiya Vaisnavas from Sri Brahma Madhva Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya say about the position in Lord's Creation of the nitya-siddha jivas (eternally liberated) and nitya-baddha jivas (eternally conditioned)? Do the souls fall down from the Spiritual World due to their envy of the Lord as some preachers from ISKCON say?

Answer by Srila Bhakti Bibudha Bodhayan Maharaj:

The Tattva as I have heard it from senior Vaisnavas is as follows:

We just have to accept that two types of souls who are eternally part and parcel of the Lord.

The Lord is equal to all nitya-siddha jivas and nitya-badha jivas as they are tasting the fruits of their actions.

According to the different levels of exploitation or dedication of the Lords energies they will have different degrees of happiness and distress.

The Lord's energy works for everybody the same.

The jiva (soul) is eternally tatastha-sakti, up till the point that he becomes liberated, from that point he becomes svarup-sakti.

The jiva-soul in its conditioned state Nitya-badha has the tendency to become attracted by the external energy of the Lord (Bahiranga-sakti) or the internal energy of the Lord (Antaranga-sakti).

The Nitya-badha soul is called Nitya-eternal because there was never a time in history when he was not bound by illusion to some degree.

Bahiranga-sakti (Maha-maya) can never enter in the Spiritual plane of existence and works under the directions of the Supreme Lord.

The Spiritual world is free from any shortcomings like envy, lust, anger etc..

Svarup-siddhi is not Tatastha anymore. The jiva becomes from that point nitya-siddha, eternally liberated fully under the protection and guidance of the Supreme Lord without the tendency to become attracted by the illusionary energy of the Lord.

Nitya-siddha souls only come to the material world for the purpose of giving guidance to the sincere seekers who want to receive Divine Grace and shelter within the Absolute Truth. Their position is that they are never bound by illusion.

All though sometimes they seem to be under the spell of illusion, this kind of illusion is arranged by the Lord energy in the form of Divine illusion (Yoga-maya) to manifest their pastimes in different ways according to time place and circumstances.