If Krsna doesn't want me to be in the material world, why am I here? It must be Krsna's fault.

Some passages may suggest we are put in this material world due to some whim of the Lord and can be taken out only when He decides, but it is an incorrect reading of the scriptures.

Text 1.2.23 of the Katha Upanisad we studied yesterday reads: "The Lord cannot be attained by mere contemplation, intellectual brilliance or scriptural study. He is attained by a person whom the Lord chooses. The Lord then reveals himself to that devotee."

Just as other passages of the scriptures, when taken in isolation, this passage may suggest that we are put in this material world due to some whim of the Lord, and similarly, we can be taken out of here only when He so decides. This can give the idea of God as a capricious person, who plays with us just like a child would play with ants, or a researcher with rats in the lab. This is, unfortunately, a common idea, even amongst some Vaiṣnavas, but it is an incorrect reading of the scriptures.

Let's take what Krsna Himself has to say to us in the 28th chapter of the 4th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, on verses 52 to 64. The context of this passage is Krsna appearing to Vaidarbhī, the wife of King Malayadhvaja, when she was lamenting for the death of her husband. Krsna resides inside the heart of everyone as Paramātmā, and here he appears to her in a visible form, as a Brahmana, and speaks frankly:

"Who are you? Whose wife or daughter are you? Who is the man lying here? It appears you are lamenting for this dead body. Don’t you recognize Me? I am your eternal friend. You may remember that many times in the past you have consulted Me.

My dear friend, even though you cannot immediately recognize Me, can’t you remember that in the past you had a very intimate friend? Unfortunately, you gave up My company and accepted a position as enjoyer of this material world. My dear gentle friend, both you and I are exactly like two swans. We live together in the same heart, which is just like the Mānasa Lake. Although we have been living together for many thousands of years, we are still far away from our original home. My dear friend, you are now My very same friend. Since you left Me, you have become more and more materialistic, and not seeing Me, you have been traveling in different forms throughout this material world, which was created by some woman.

In that city [the material body] there are five gardens, nine gates, one protector, three apartments, six families, five stores, five material elements, and one woman who is lord of the house.

My dear friend, the five gardens are the five objects of sense enjoyment, and the protector is the life air, which passes through the nine gates. The three apartments are the chief ingredients — fire, water and earth. The six families are the aggregate total of the mind and five senses. The five stores are the five working sensory organs. They transact their business through the combined forces of the five elements, which are eternal. Behind all this activity is the soul. The soul is a person and an enjoyer in reality. However, because he is now hidden within the city of the body, he is devoid of knowledge. My dear friend, when you enter such a body along with the woman of material desires, you become overly absorbed in sense enjoyment. Because of this, you have forgotten your spiritual life. Due to your material conceptions, you are placed in various miserable conditions.

Actually, you are not the daughter of Vidarbha, nor is this man, Malayadhvaja, your well-wishing husband. Nor were you the actual husband of Purañjanī. You were simply captivated in this body of nine gates. Sometimes you think yourself a man, sometimes a chaste woman and sometimes a neutral eunuch. This is all because of the body, which is created by the illusory energy. This illusory energy is My potency, and actually both of us — you and I — are pure spiritual identities. Now just try to understand this. I am trying to explain our factual position.

My dear friend, I, the Supersoul, and you, the individual soul, are not different in quality, for we are both spiritual. In fact, My dear friend, you are qualitatively not different from Me in your constitutional position. Just try to consider this subject. Those who are actually advanced scholars, who are in knowledge, do not find any qualitative difference between you and Me.

As a person sees the reflection of his body in a mirror to be one with himself and not different, whereas others actually see two bodies, so in our material condition, in which the living being is affected and yet not affected, there is a difference between God and the living entity. In this way both swans live together in the heart. When the one swan is instructed by the other, he is situated in his constitutional position. This means he regains his original Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which was lost because of his material attraction."

These verses represent the highest degree of scriptural evidence, because they convey Krsna Himself speaking. Although these words are inserted inside the allegory of King Purañjana, they are transmitted to Nārada Muni to King Prācīnabarhi as a direct instruction. They are just relayed by Nārada, and not invented by him. To argue that Nārada invented these words is the same as to argue that all the scriptures were similarly invented.

In this way, this passage gives the idea that Krsna doesn't want us here. He is following us in our material adventure, as we go from one body to the other, but His desire is that we may become free from this prison.

This raises two questions:

1- If Krsna is all-powerful and He is our well-wisher, as indicated in the verses, why did He allow us to come to this material world in the first place?

2- Since He is all-powerful and He is our well-wisher, why does He allow us to stay here? Why doesn't he just take us out?

The answer to these two questions comes down to the two essential characteristics of the soul, which need to be properly understood if we want to understand the reason and nature of our material conditioning. These are two essential and intrinsic characteristics of the soul that can't be separated from it, just like heat can't be separated from fire, and liquidity can't be separated from water.

What are these two characteristics?

The first is love for Krsna. This love for Krsna is intrinsic to the soul and can't be separated from it. Because of this intrinsic characteristic, Prabhupada concludes that the soul lives originally in a position of eternal service to Krsna, but somehow or other comes to this material world. This conclusion is expressed by Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu Himself in His Siksastakam: "O Son of Maharaj Nanda, I am Your eternal servitor, and although I am so, somehow or other I have fallen in the ocean of birth and death. Please, therefore, pick me up from this ocean of death, and fix me as one of the atoms of Your Lotus Feet."

The reason the soul comes to this material world, even though this is one’s original position, and Krsna does not desire it, is the second essential characteristic of the soul, which is free will.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thākura explains in His Jaiva dharma that free will can't be separated from the soul, because it is the very thing that makes a soul different from matter. If a soul were separated from free will, it would just become a material object without independent existence. Free will is so essential because it is the very thing that allows us to love Krsna. Love can only be voluntary, therefore, love is dependent on free will. By this, we can see why it is so important.

Love implies a choice. It implies one is free to go away, but one chooses to stay. If one is forced to stay, it is not love anymore, but imprisonment or slavery. Krsna is not interested in this type of relationship, and because of this, He respects the free will of the soul, understanding better than anyone that love can only be offered voluntarily.

In this way, free will is the ultimate cause of the conditioning of the soul. At a certain point, we became hesitant in serving Krsna, questioning if we instead couldn't become the center, the object of attention. This was the beginning of the quest that ultimately brought us to this material world. Krsna is forced to accept our free will and not interfere with it, but when we come, He comes together with us, following us birth after birth as the Supersoul. And revealing Himself to us when we so desire.

The verse from the Katha Upanisad that we started our article with, "The Lord cannot be attained by mere contemplation, intellectual brilliance or scriptural study. He is attained by a person whom the Lord chooses. The Lord then reveals himself to that devotee." doesn't imply thus that Krsna revealing Himself to the devotee is a capricious decision. It comes as a response to the desire of the devotee, when one decides to abandon his mentality of lording over the material energy, abandoning the processes of fruitive activity, selfish asceticism, and mental speculation, and comes to the point of again serving Krsna out of love. When this characteristic manifests, Krsna understands that one is ready to return to one's constitutional position and reveals Himself to the devotee.

One could then question that if devotional service to Krsna is the dharma, or original characteristic of the soul, how can it be forgotten? How can we become so involved with the material energy that chanting the holy names or serving Krsna feel as something difficult or even uncomfortable?

The point is that as we become more involved with matter, or free will becomes more and more restricted by the results of our past actions, karma. Because of the results of karma, once we take a certain course within material nature, it becomes difficult to change it.

In most species of life, the soul is so covered that one practically doesn't have free will at all. As a dog, one has practically no choice; all one can do is to live like a dog. This happens due to the results of one's karma, but these results are temporary. Gradually, these results cease, and one again comes to human life, where the use of free will becomes possible again, even though still partially restricted by the effects of our past karma.

If we use properly whatever free will we have now, choosing to serve Krsna and revive our original constitutional position instead of just enjoying our senses, we become gradually purified, and our free will increases. If instead we choose to serve our senses, then our free will diminishes, and we become again entangled.

The exemple of the propensity of serving Krsna being the essential characteristic of the soul, just as liquidity is the inseparable characteristic of water is very appropriate, because water can be frozen when exposed to cold, but as soon as the temperature raises, the ice melts, and water return to it's natural liquid state.

Similarly, when the soul chooses to leave the association of Krsna, the natural love for Krsna is gradually covered and eventually forgotten. However, the natural characteristic is still present, and is immediately revived when the soul comes in contact with an environment that nourishes it, in the association of devotees who are serving Krsna. As long as one can keep oneself in this warm environment, the heart gradually melts and one revives his eternal, natural characteristic.

Some accuse Krsna of being the cause of our conditioning, but this is vehemently rejected by Bhaktivinoda Thākura, who relays the words of Paramahansa Babaji to Vrajanatha in his Jaiva Dharma:

“The independent jiva is a beloved servant of Krsna, and thus Krsna is kind and compassionate towards him. Seeing the misfortune of the jiva, as he misuses his independence and becomes attached to maya, He chases after him, weeping and weeping, and appears in the material world to deliver him. Sri Krsna, the ocean of compassion, His heart melting with mercy for the jivas, manifests His acintya-lila in the material world, thinking that His appearance will enable the jiva to see His nectarean pastimes. However, the jiva does not understand the truth about Krsna’s pastimes, even after being showered by so much mercy, so Krsna then descends in Sri Navadvipa in the form of guru. He personally describes the supreme process of chanting His name, form, qualities and pastimes, and personally instructs and inspires the jivas to take to this path by practicing it Himself. Baba, how can you accuse Krsna of being at fault in any way when He is so merciful? His mercy is unlimited, but our misfortune is lamentable.” (Jaiva Dharma, ch. 16)

Prabhupada reveals all these simple conclusions in his books. He did the heavy lifting for us, digesting all the complicated philosophical passages into simple conclusions that anyone can understand, revealing the true conclusions of the previous ācāryas.

The reason the so-called "fall" of the jīva appears to be such a complicated subject is that many try to understand this question using their limited intellects, instead of accepting the conclusions given by Prabhupada. As a result, they end up just confusing themselves and others, incapable of understanding either Prabhupada or the passages of the previous ācāryas they quote.

Just as a complicated mathematical equation has only one correct answer, this complicated topic also has just one correct answer, which is revealed by Prabhupada in his books. One who studies in humility and tries to understand this single answer can easily solve the problem, while others who try to create alternate answers, brute forcing the problem using their material intellects, face many difficulties and end up always reaching the wrong conclusion. The jīva then appear to have come from the impersonal Brahmajyoti, to have been eternally in the material world, to have been mercilessly cast away into the material ocean by Krsna, and so on.

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