Eternal associates of the Lord in search of enlightenment

Eternal associates of the Lord often come to this material world and play the roles of conditioned souls in search of enlightenment. How and why does this happen?

Eternal associates of the Lord often come to this material world and play the roles of conditioned souls in search of enlightenment. It's difficult to understand all the details of how this happens, but it appears to be rather frequent.

Narada Muni, for example, is a nitya-siddha. He resides eternally in the spiritual world and participates in numerous pastimes there, as described in the Brhad Bhagavatamrta. However, he also appeared in this universe as the son of a maidservant, and as such played the role of a conditioned soul who, thanks to the association of pure devotees, attained perfection.

The history of Narada Muni happened close to the end of the previous day of Brahma. Narada was a 5-year-old child who was serving in an asrama alongside his mother. She was just a maidservant, without a husband, money, or any social position. Narada himself didn't have any opportunity to study, but He got a taste for the practice of devotional service by serving a group of pure devotees who took shelter in the asrama during the months of caturmasya. By serving the sages, listening to their spiritual discussions, and eating their maha-prasadam, the devotional sentiment of Narada awakened, and after his mother passed away, being bitten by a serpent, Narada left for meditating.

At first, after a very short darshan, Krsna said to him he was not perfect in his practice, and would not be able to see Him again in this life, but after additional practice Narada attained perfection and in the next millennium appeared as the son of Brahma.

In the Nrsimha Purana is mentioned how Prahlada Maharaja was in his past life a young brahmana who was attached to the company of a certain prostitute. On a certain day, due to a coincidence, they were engaged in fasting and cleaning an abandoned temple of Lord Nrsimhadeva in Nrsimha Caturdasi and thus they got the mercy of the Lord. The young brahmana became Prahlada Maharaja and the girl became a famous apsara. The point is that Prahlada Maharaja is also an eternal associate of the Lord. How can he appear in this material world as an apparently fallen Brahmana?

That's the mystery. How such perfect souls, who are described as eternally liberated can come to this world and play the roles of apparently conditioned souls, who like us face challenges in their spiritual practice, but eventually gain the mercy of the Lord. There are many other examples, like Dhruva Maharaja, Vasudeva and Devaki, Uddhava, and so on.

How can they gain something they never lost in the first place?

Srila Prabhupada mentions that when there is an ordinary test, any ordinary person can pass it, but when there is a great test, a highly elevate soul is needed. When the Lord wants to give some special example to us, giving us the highest examples of resilience in spiritual life, or glorifying the tenacity of His devotees, He needs to send one of His eternal associates from the spiritual world to play the role. Under the influence of Krsna's internal energy, they act like conditioned souls, but in reality, they maintain their eternal position. They don't fall into Maya like us.

Such appearances seem to be very common. The history narrated in the first part of the Brhad Bhagavatamrta happened in a different universe, and we can notice that Narada Muni, Dhruva Maharaja, Hanuman, and others are present there. It seems that these eternal associates of Krsna come to play their roles in every universe. In this way, Dhruva Maharaja lives eternally in Vaikunta on his own planet but at the same time he appears in every material universe. Every time he appears to go through the same struggle to attain His eternal position, which he never left in the first place. In his purport on 3.4.11, Srila Prabhupada sheds some light on this issue: "Uddhava is one of the eternal associates of the Lord, and a plenary portion of Uddhava was one of the eight Vasus in the days of yore"

Here he explains that when these eternal associates appear in each material universe they do it through plenary portions. This explains how they can remain in their eternal positions and at the same time go through a sequence of lives in this material world, executing different activities and pastimes along the way. Just like Krsna can expand Himself and be present simultaneously in each universe, intimate associates like Uddhava, Prahlada Maharaja, Dhruva Maharaja, Narada Muni, and others can also do the same. This show how such intimate associates of Krsna are almost as powerful as the Lord Himself.

However, it's important to not minimize their achievements, thinking that everything just happens automatically for them. Every time such eternal associates incarnate in one of the material universes, they face real challenges created by Krsna's potencies. The spears the demons used to attack Prahlada Maharaja were not toys. The danger is real, it's just that due to their strong connection with Krsna, such great devotees can surpass all tests every time they come, even when they appear as a plenary portion, with just a fraction of their original power.

This also proves that being a devotee of Krsna is not a mater of geographical location. A pure devotee can remain equally pure both here and in the spiritual world. The fact of geographically appearing in this material world doesn't in any way weaken their connection with Krsna. This is an example for us since none of us is ever separated from Krsna, and the proof is that is that He is always present in our hearts as the Supersoul. We just have to remember Him.