Jaya and Vijaya and the eternal lila with Kṛṣṇa
"After millions and millions of years of keeping oneself away from the lila of the Lord, when one comes to Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, this period becomes insignificant, just like dreaming."
« The ‘Fall’ of the Jīva, as Explained by Śrīla Prabhupāda
Jaya and Vijaya and the eternal lila with Kṛṣṇa
“Jaya and Vijaya had their lila with Kṛṣṇa, but they had to come down for their little mistake. They were given mukti, merging into the Brahma-sayujya, after being killed three times as demons. This Brahma-sayujya mukti is nonpermanent. Every living entity wants pleasure, but Brahma-sayujya is lacking in pleasure; it consists only of eternal existence. So when those who get Brahma-sayujya mukti do not find transcendental bliss, they fall down to make a compromise with material bliss, for example, by founding schools and hospitals.Even Lord Brahmā is still material and wants to lord it over the material world. He may come down to become a germ, but then he may rise up to Kṛṣṇa Consciousness and go back home, back to Godhead. This is the position.”
Apart from our original position of service to Kṛṣṇa, any other position we may find in the material sphere will be impermanent. Even Brahmā may continue into the cycle of birth and death and even fall into lower species of life if he doesn’t take the process of developing his Kṛṣṇa Consciousness seriously. In fact, even a position in the impersonal brahmajyoti will be impermanent. Prabhupāda makes this point in several purports, concluding it in his purport to SB 4.23.15, where he mentions that “there is a 99.9 percent chance of his falling down again into material existence”.
The only exception, as he mentions, is that sometimes, due to previous knowledge about the spiritual planets and devotional service to the Lord, a soul can be promoted to a spiritual planet from the Brahman effulgence. Thus, 99.9% of the souls who attain the brahmajyoti eventually fall back (often impersonalists who fall back from the brahmajyoti become philanthropists and other pious people), and the remaining 0.1% are the rare souls who attain the spiritual planets from there. A soul may stay for a long time in the Brahman effulgence, but eventually one has to move. This continues until one is reestablished in a position of service to Kṛṣṇa.
After being killed by the Lord in their third lives as demons (as Śiśupāla and Dantavakra), Jaya and Vijaya first attained the impersonal brahmajyoti, and from there reached their original position in the Vaikuṇṭha planets as eternal associates of the Lord. Their whole saga was just a līlā to satisfy their desire to fight with the Lord (and the Lord’s desire to fight with them) and to illustrate the danger of offending great devotees.
One could argue that here Prabhupāda appears to contradict his own commentary on SB 3.16.26, where he concludes that “The conclusion is that no one falls from the spiritual world, or Vaikuṇṭha planet, for it is the eternal abode.”
Here, context is the key. In the pastime, Jaya and Vijaya appear to fall from Vaikuṇṭha after being cursed by the four Kumāras. The whole passage is anchored on the question of how two associates of the Lord could be forced out of Vaikuṇṭha by a curse. Is one’s position in Vaikuṇṭha temporary, just as in the celestial planets? Of course not, Vaikuṇṭha is the eternal abode; no one can be kicked out of there by any external force. The case of Jaya and Vijaya was a divine pastime organized by the Lord to fulfill a purpose.
What about our case? There are two points to consider. The first is that Prabhupāda’s explanation is based on the idea that we don’t fall, remaining in our eternal position, even though our attention may wander in the material world. This is the reason the question “how does the jīva fall in the material world” is unanswerable, since factually there is no fall, just temporary forgetfulness.
The second point is that we become absorbed here in the material world due to our own choice. No one forced us to come here. No one falls from Vaikuṇṭha, but at the same time, the spiritual world is not a prison. Even though the soul is always with Kṛṣṇa, we can focus our attention here if we so desire. Kṛṣṇa never leaves us, but we turn our backs to Him.
“So when I say yes, there is eternal lila with Kṛṣṇa, that means on the evidence of Jaya-Vijaya. Unless one develops full devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, he goes up only to Brahma-sayujya but falls down. But after millions and millions of years of keeping oneself away from the lila of the Lord, when one comes to Kṛṣṇa Consciousness this period becomes insignificant, just like dreaming. Because he falls down from Brahma-sayujya, he thinks that this may be his origin, but he does not remember that even before that, he was with Kṛṣṇa. So the conclusion is that whatever may be our past, let us come to Kṛṣṇa Consciousness and immediately join Kṛṣṇa. It is a waste of time for a diseased man to try to find out how he has become diseased; better to spend time curing the disease.”
Prabhupāda relates our situation to the pastime of Jaya and Vijaya, concluding that every soul is originally part of Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes in some capacity, a position of service to the Lord, and not some kind of impersonal existence in the brahmajyoti or causal ocean. Even if a soul may forget this eternal position and spend millions of years wandering in the material world, this eternal relationship is never broken, and when one returns to this eternal nature of service, all this time appears insignificant.
Some speculate that the souls must have come from the impersonal brahmajyoti, but Prabhupāda counters it by saying that the brahmajyoti is just a transitory position, through which the soul passes, and not the original position. Many travelers may pass through passport control in the airport to enter a country, but this doesn’t mean they were born there. There is a whole story of their trip before reaching the border. Similarly, a soul may come to the material world from the brahmajyoti, but this doesn’t mean that’s the start of the journey.
An Allegory
“On the top of a tree there was a nice tal fruit. A crow went there and the fruit fell down. Some panditas—big, big learned scholars—saw this and discussed: “The fruit fell due to the crow agitating the limb.” “No, the fruit fell simultaneously with the crow landing and frightened the crow so he flew away.” “No, the fruit was ripe, and the weight of the crow landing broke it from the branch.” And so on and so on. What is the use of such discussions? So whether you were in the Brahma-sayujya or with Kṛṣṇa in His lila, at the moment you are in neither, so the best policy is to develop your Kṛṣṇa Consciousness and go there—never mind what is your origin.”
After explaining the essential points in the relationship of the soul with Kṛṣṇa and countering common misconceptions, Prabhupāda comes to the punch-line of his essay: Ultimately there is no gain in discussing this topic too much; we should try to understand it only to the degree that it makes us fixed in the service of Kṛṣṇa, and from there spend our time improving our Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, instead of speculating about the fall of the jīva. Service to Kṛṣṇa brings us practical benefit and connects us with our original consciousness, while mental speculation doesn’t produce any positive result. We should thus just accept Prabhupāda’s conclusions on the topic and move on. The more one insists on trying to understand every small detail, the more one risks wasting one’s human life.
After making this point, Prabhupāda reinforces the previous points, making sure we end with the proper conclusions:
“Brahma-sayujya and Kṛṣṇa-lila—both may be possible. But when you came down from Brahma-sayujya or from Kṛṣṇa lila, that remains a mystery. But at the present moment we are in Māyā’s clutches, so now our only hope is to become Kṛṣṇa conscious and go back home, back to Godhead. The real position is servant of Kṛṣṇa, and servant of Kṛṣṇa means in Kṛṣṇa lila; directly or indirectly, we are always serving Kṛṣṇa’s lila, even in dream.Just as we cannot go out of the sun when it is daytime, so where is the chance of going out of Kṛṣṇa lila? The cloud may be there—the sky may become very gray and dim—but still the sunlight is there, everywhere, during the daytime. Similarly, because I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, I am always connected with Kṛṣṇa.”
These two paragraphs can be broken into three main ideas:
a. We can’t fully understand how or from where we fell into material existence. What we know for sure is that, right now, we are under material illusion, and thus our priority should be to get out. A drowning man has to understand that he is in the water and that he needs to get out to save himself, but there is no point in inquiring in all minute detail how he fell there.
b. Prabhupāda insists that the original position of the soul is as an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, just as explained by Lord Caitanya (jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’, nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema ‘sādhya’ kabhu naya, śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya). Eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, as Prabhupāda concludes, means that the original position of the soul is as part of Kṛṣṇa’s lila. In the liberated state, the soul is directly engaged in the service of the Lord, and even in the conditioned state, the soul is indirectly engaged, participating in Kṛṣṇa’s līlā of reclaiming the fallen souls. Kṛṣṇa is everywhere, and ultimately everything is His lila; therefore, even while sleeping in material illusion, we are part of it, even if not aware. During the daytime, one may close one’s eyes and not see the sun, but this doesn’t mean the sun is not there. Similarly, we may turn our backs on Kṛṣṇa and try to enjoy this material world, but this doesn’t mean Kṛṣṇa is not present.
c. We are parts and parcels of Kṛṣṇa, eternally. In both the liberated and conditioned state, there is no question of being separated from Him. The only question is whether to be conscious of this relationship or not. When we become forgetful, we struggle in material life, and when we remember, we enjoy a life of bliss with Him.
“My finger, even though it may be diseased, remains part and parcel of my body. Therefore, we try to treat it, cure it, because it is part and parcel. So Kṛṣṇa comes Himself when we forget Him, or He sends His representative.”
Apart from being present in the hearts of all, Kṛṣṇa regularly comes personally to this material world as an incarnation, and at other times He sends His representatives. Why does He do that? Because we are His parts and parcels, and He wants to awaken us to our original, functional position. When one’s finger becomes diseased, one tries to cure it, since the finger is an important part of the body. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa tries to recover us from our diseased position and bring us back to our original condition of loving service to Him.
“Awake or dreaming, I am the same man. As soon as I awaken and see myself, I see Kṛṣṇa. Cause and effect are both Kṛṣṇa. For example, cotton becomes thread, and thread becomes cloth. Still, the original cause is cotton. Therefore, everything is Kṛṣṇa in the ultimate sense. When we cannot contact Kṛṣṇa personally, we contact His energies.There is no chance to be outside Kṛṣṇa’s lila. But we see differences under different conditions. To give another example: In the pool of water and in the mirror the same “me” is reflected, but differently; one is shimmering – unsteady – and one is clear and fixed. Except when we are in Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, we cannot see our actual position rightly; therefore the learned man sees all living entities as the same parts and parcels of Kṛṣṇa.”
We don’t become someone else when we sleep. Even if I dream I’m Napoleon, I don’t become an emperor. I may temporarily think I’m a general, but this doesn’t change who I am in reality. Similarly, the constitutional position of every soul is to be an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. Just as a materialist thinks he is the body, one may think he comes from the Brahmajyoti, or from the causal ocean. Similarly, one may think that he has always been in the material world, or any other false identity one wants, but this is all under the false ego. Ultimately, all these false identities have to be abandoned on the way to being again situated in our original identity.
The example of the reflection is evoked in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to explain the material activities of the soul under the influence of the three material modes in the context of the soul’s eternal identity. When I look inside a pot of oil, my reflection appears fluid and discolored, and I can barely recognize myself. When I look into a river, my reflection is unsteady and moving, while a look into the mirror reveals a clear reflection. In any of the three situations, however, I remain the same person; Just the reflection looks different due to the different surfaces. Similarly, when acting on ignorance or passion, a living entity acts very differently from one’s real nature, even though our eternal nature remains unchanged.
“Material existence is impersonal because my real personality is covered. But we should think that, “because I am now covered by this clay, I am diseased.” We should think that, “I must get to business to get myself uncovered,” and not wonder how I got this way. Now the fruit is there—take it and enjoy. That is your first business. God is not bound by cause. He can change; He is the cause of all causes. Now don’t waste your time with this kaka-taliya-nyaya, “crow-and-tal-fruit logic.”
I may fall into a puddle and get covered in mud, but this doesn’t mean I become mud. It’s just a matter of becoming clean again. Similarly, material life means that my real identity is covered by the mud of ignorance. I become “impersonal” in the sense that my real identity is covered, but the solution is to simply take a bath and become clean again.
After explaining it for the second time, Prabhupāda reiterates again that we should just accept these conclusions, instead of continuing to speculate endlessly on this topic. When we see a fruit fallen on the ground, there is no utility in discussing how or why it fell. Similarly, when we see ourselves in this material world, the intelligent question is how to get out.
Why shouldn’t we discuss if the answer is there?
The point is that although Prabhupāda gives the general conclusions in his books, this is a topic that can’t be fully understood by any conditioned soul. We can understand the outline of it by following his explanations, but the more we think about it, the more we will come to details we can’t understand. The more we can’t understand, the more we will be inclined to try to brute-force it using our material intelligence, and the more we speculate on it, the more prone we will be to getting lost in pedantic arguments and reaching the wrong conclusion. The reason so many believe that they came from the brahmajyoti or from the causal ocean, that they were whimsically cast into material illusion by Kṛṣṇa, or that they were never out of the material world, etc., is exactly because they followed this path. The further we go into this process of speculation, the harder it is to return to the proper understanding, which is simple and natural.
We can easily understand that we have an eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa, but what relationship exactly, is very difficult to answer. Similarly, it is easy to understand that we come to the material world due to our free will, by our own choice, but when we want to enter into the small details of how and when exactly this happened, the question becomes unsolvable.
Part of the process of getting out of material illusion is to accept that we can’t fully understand how we got here. Just as we can’t perfectly understand practically anything in this material world, we also can’t perfectly understand how we ended up here. The intelligent approach is to study this topic only enough to be able to understand that we are eternal servants of Kṛṣṇa, accepting Prabhupāda’s conclusions, and from there pursue our spiritual practice with determination, avoiding the spiraling path of endless speculation and pedantic debate that leads to incorrect conclusions.
As Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja alerts us in CC Ādi 17.308:
acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāms tarkeṇa yojayet
prakṛtibhyaḥ param yac ca tad acintyasya lakṣaṇam“Anything transcendental to material nature is called inconceivable, whereas arguments are all mundane. Since mundane arguments cannot touch transcendental subject matters, one should not try to understand transcendental subjects through mundane arguments.”
The “fall” of the jīva has an inconceivable element to it (the soul somehow turns away from Kṛṣṇa without any external reason). It is a spiritual mystery. Prabhupāda thus tries to protect us from this tarkika (dry logical) exercise, which just leads to confusion and doubt, without any practical gain. All questions can be easily answered when one returns to the transcendental platform, but from here, many details are unsolvable, just like we can understand many of Kṛṣṇa’s qualities, pastimes, and opulences by studying the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but it is not possible to fully understand Him.
Part of the spiritual process consists of accepting that there are many things we can’t understand, and focusing on the details that are known and understandable, based on the explanations of our ācāryas. By focusing on what we can understand, instead of insisting on esoteric details we can’t, we can advance in the process, and gradually understand more.
Trying to insist on details that are not explained by our ācāryas results in mental speculation, since material intelligence is the only tool we have outside of their conclusions. As we already defined, the material intelligence is very limited and imperfect, and trying to understand spiritual topics by the process of speculation always brings us to the wrong answer. We then come to the conclusion that we were never out of this material world, we don’t have a relationship with Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa is responsible for us being here, etc., and these incorrect answers just increase our ignorance.
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