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?
Thanks prabhu, this article was very helpful for questions that I had.
Further to this topic, do the demons who are given places in the spiritual world when killed by Krishna (eg Putana) fall under the same conclusion? Would it indicate that that was actually her eternal relationship as mother Yashoda's helper? 🙏
I believe not. They are jivas who attain such positions due to mercy, its not that we are gopis or assistants of mother Yashoda who fell down.
This point about the soul eternal position is quite complicated. We all originally have an eternal relationship with Krsna, and we have love for Him. However, as Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains, we are not the same as the eternal associates of Krsna like mother Yashoda, who are direct expansion of his energy. As Prabhupada explains, our original consciousness is Krsna Consciousness, a consciousness of service to the Lord, but at the same time we don't have the same type of prema as these eternal associates. Our original love for Krsna is still somehow undeveloped. This explains how it is possible that we may temporarily come in contact with the material energy.
However, if here in the material world we have contact with pure devotees, we have the potential to increase our natural love for Krsna, attaining the same prema as these eternal associates, becoming like them.
We have thus love for Krsna, constitutionally, but we are eternally increasing this love, and if at a certain point we get in contact with devotees who have this prema, we can become like them.
Thanks prabhu, this article was very helpful for questions that I had.
Further to this topic, do the demons who are given places in the spiritual world when killed by Krishna (eg Putana) fall under the same conclusion? Would it indicate that that was actually her eternal relationship as mother Yashoda's helper? 🙏
I believe not. They are jivas who attain such positions due to mercy, its not that we are gopis or assistants of mother Yashoda who fell down.
This point about the soul eternal position is quite complicated. We all originally have an eternal relationship with Krsna, and we have love for Him. However, as Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains, we are not the same as the eternal associates of Krsna like mother Yashoda, who are direct expansion of his energy. As Prabhupada explains, our original consciousness is Krsna Consciousness, a consciousness of service to the Lord, but at the same time we don't have the same type of prema as these eternal associates. Our original love for Krsna is still somehow undeveloped. This explains how it is possible that we may temporarily come in contact with the material energy.
However, if here in the material world we have contact with pure devotees, we have the potential to increase our natural love for Krsna, attaining the same prema as these eternal associates, becoming like them.
We have thus love for Krsna, constitutionally, but we are eternally increasing this love, and if at a certain point we get in contact with devotees who have this prema, we can become like them.