« The Friend Who Never Left: A Dialog on the “Fall” of the Jīva
You can receive new articles directly in your inbox. Subscription is free; donations are welcome.
Chapter Nine: The Friend Who Never Left
The next morning, Mādhava returned with the Fourth Canto in his backpack. He had put effort into studying Nārada’s explanations in chapter 29 and comparing them with the previous conversation.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: Haribol! So, did you find the answers?
Mādhava Dāsa: I think so. But I also found another interesting point. After Nārada finishes telling the story, King Prācīnabarhi admits that he didn’t understand it.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: And what does that tell you?
Mādhava Dāsa: That I was not the only one.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa laughed.
Mādhava Dāsa: But at least Prācīnabarhi was honest about it. He was an expert in performing sacrifices, and surely learned in many areas, but he could not understand the spiritual meaning of the allegory, because his intelligence was absorbed in fruitive activities. He was too absorbed in karma.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: Yes. But now let’s see how Nārada explains it. See how he describes the relationship between the soul and intelligence in text five.
Mādhava Dāsa: He explains that by taking shelter of the material intelligence, the soul develops the concepts of “I” and “mine” and becomes absorbed in the senses, enjoying and suffering.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: So, how did Purañjana become separated from his original friend?
Mādhava Dāsa: By identifying with the material body and intelligence. He became so absorbed in material enjoyment that he forgot the Lord.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: Notice that this forgetfulness doesn’t mean that the Lord abandoned him. Paramātmā remains with him at all times, but Purañjana no longer recognizes Him. In the allegory, the Lord is there the whole time, but Purañjana is too occupied with the woman, the city, and his plans for enjoyment to notice Him.
Mādhava Dāsa: This means that the separation is in consciousness; it is not about physical location.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: Exactly. But let’s examine the Sanskrit more carefully. Let’s return to chapter 28, text 55.
Mādhava opened the passage.
sa tvaṁ vihāya māṁ bandho, gato grāmya-matir mahīm
vicaran padam adrākṣīḥ, kayācin nirmitaṁ striyā
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: What does the expression vihāya mām mean?
Mādhava Dāsa: Having left me.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: And what comes immediately afterward?
Mādhava Dāsa: Grāmya-matiḥ. Materialistic consciousness.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: You can see that these two expressions are connected. Purañjana leaves the company of the Lord and becomes absorbed in material consciousness. He gives up his position of service and tries to enjoy independently in the material world.
This explains the process of the soul turning his attention away from the Lord and becoming absorbed in matter.
Kṛṣṇa does not abandon anyone. He is always with each one of us. All the time, even here in the material world. The separation happens because the soul turns his attention away from Him. It is similar to when you are with someone and the person spends the whole time looking at his phone. You are with him, but he is not with you.
Mādhava Dāsa: I can relate to this example...
So this is the meaning of the expression kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha, turning our face away from Kṛṣṇa.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: And this turning away is connected with the misuse of our minute independence. No one is forcing your friend to look at his phone. It is his own decision.
Prabhupāda explains this very clearly in his purport to text 53, in chapter 29.
When the soul desires to enjoy independently, he develops a consciousness of duality and becomes averse to serving the Lord. He quotes the famous expression from Prema-vivarta: kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga-vāñchā kare, nikaṭa-stha māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare.
When the soul turns away from Kṛṣṇa and desires material enjoyment, māyā, who is nearby, captures him.
Apart from Kṛṣṇa, no one can be independent. We need to be always under some shelter. If we choose not to be under the shelter of internal potency, we fall under the shelter of the external potency.
Mādhava Dāsa: This means that the cause of material conditioning is our desire to enjoy separately from Kṛṣṇa. Māyā does not forcibly drag the soul away.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: Exactly. If Māyā could simply invade the spiritual world and take the Lord’s associates away, no one would be safe there.
One could then ask why Kṛṣṇa gives us free will, if this independence can cause us so much trouble. The point is that free will is a prerequisite for love. Love has to be voluntary, and without free will there is no question of voluntary love. We are not machines programmed to serve Kṛṣṇa. We are conscious individuals who can voluntarily direct our love toward Him.
When the soul desires to enjoy separately, Kṛṣṇa respects that choice and lets us come into material bondage. But His affection for us does not disappear. He follows us as Paramātmā.
This is what makes the allegory so significant. We have rejected Kṛṣṇa’s company, but He continues accompanying us. He remains with us through all the different bodies we pass through. He patiently waits for us to turn again towards Him.
Mādhava Dāsa: What about the original home mentioned in the previous verse? If the separation is created by the change of consciousness, does this mean that the original home refers simply to our original consciousness?
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: We should not jump to this conclusion. Remember what Prabhupāda explicitly explains in his purport.
Mādhava Dāsa: The original home of the soul and the Lord is the spiritual world.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: That’s not an accidental expression. Look at the Sanskrit of text 54.
Mādhava Dāsa: haṁsāv ahaṁ ca tvaṁ cārya, sakhāyau mānasāyanau, abhūtām antarā vaukaḥ, sahasra-parivatsarān.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: The word okaḥ in vaukaḥ means a dwelling place or residence, but Prabhupāda translates it as “our original home”. One may question this translation, but if we study the Sanskrit carefully, we see that Prabhupāda is correct.
Mādhava Dāsa: How can it be if the dictionary says simply “home”?
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: Who is speaking about this home in the verse?
Mādhava Dāsa: The Lord.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: And who belongs to it?
Mādhava Dāsa: Both the Lord and the individual soul.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: Are the Lord and the individual soul spiritual or material?
Mādhava Dāsa: Spiritual, of course. They are sat, eternal, and without change.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: Exactly. When I speak about the material identity, the abode must be temporary, because the identity itself is temporary. When I speak about “home,” I refer to a temporary place that was built at a certain time and where I came to live on a certain date.
The spiritual world is different. It is an eternal place and is eternally connected with the Lord. It is His eternal abode and therefore, automatically His original abode.
Mādhava Dāsa: I don’t think anyone will disagree that the spiritual world is the original abode of the Lord, but how does this extend to the individual soul? It seems Prabhupada is adding this meaning.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: No, the Lord Himself is implying it. Prabhupada is just noticing a nuance most miss.
The Lord says ahaṁ ca tvaṁ ca: “Both you and I.”
He is not describing two different places, that He belongs to one place and the soul to the other. He is speaking about their shared original residence. Therefore, “our original home.”
This makes the point that they are together not only here in the material world, but that they are together eternally. The Lord lives eternally in the spiritual world. This means the soul also lives there with Him. That’s what Kṛṣṇa says here.
This explains why Prabhupāda identifies this original residence as the spiritual world. It is not his personal conclusion; he is simply following what the verse says.
Mādhava Dāsa: Still, sharing an eternal home and having eternally lived there together are two different claims. One can argue that establishing one does not necessarily establish the other.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa examined him for a second. He was starting to become genuinely impressed.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: This is a fair argument, but it breaks down when we examine the context. In text 53, the Lord mentions hitvā māṁ, “you gave up My company.” Then, in text 54, He mentions vaukaḥ in the context of abhūtām antarā (become separated). Therefore, abhūtām antarā vaukaḥ: “we have become separated from our original home.” And, if we put it in the context of the following words, it becomes even more explicit. Abhūtām antarā vaukaḥ, sahasra-parivatsarān: we have remained separated from our home for thousands of years.
In this way, the Sanskrit is clear. Unless one wants to say that Nārada Muni is using preaching strategies in the name of the Supersoul, this is a very strong argument.
Mādhava Dāsa smiled. He was considering the expression in isolation. Now he could see how the surrounding statements supplied the missing context Prabhupāda captured in his translation.
Mādhava Dāsa: I got it. The Lord is not merely saying that we belong to the same home. He is reminding us of a companionship we gave up. “Our original home” has to be understood together with that.
In this way, we also cannot say that the original home is the heart, the material body, or some temporary situation in the material world.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: Absolutely not. The material body is exactly the place where the two swans are now, far away from their original home.
Prabhupāda explains that the Lord and the souls live together in the spiritual world, and that the living entities are engaged in His service. This is our natural disposition. We just forgot. How did we forget? Somehow or other.
This leads us to another important point: The spiritual world is a real, eternal abode. Attaining it requires us to be situated in a certain state of consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but the spiritual world itself is not simply a state of the mind. This spiritual world is constitutionally the eternal home of the soul, where we live eternally with our intimate friend, Kṛṣṇa. Neither the spiritual world nor our eternal constitutional nature are destroyed when we become materially conditioned.
We already studied in the teachings of Lord Kapila how the soul becomes connected with material existence through a reflection of consciousness. The changes in the material reflection do not transform the original nature of the soul.
Mādhava Dāsa: This means that the “fall” is not like someone physically falling from the roof of a building.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: That’s a material image we impose on it.
We imagine a soul standing somewhere in the spiritual world, developing material desires and then traveling a certain distance and entering the material manifestation. We forget that spiritual existence is not governed by space and time the way we are used to here.
“Fall” means that the soul becomes absorbed in material consciousness and identifies with a succession of material bodies. The contact with the false ego creates a material identity, the subtle body. This subtle body then travels around, moved by the vital airs, going from one body to the other. This is part of the material reflection that moves, while the sun is fixed in the sky.
Mādhava Dāsa: Wait, how is it that the soul proper is not inside the subtle body? What is there then if not the soul? Now that I’m thinking about it, it sounds contradictory. The soul is mentioned as being 1/10,000 times the size of the tip of a hair. This appears to suggest that the soul is a particle that is physically moving.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: This verse you mentioned is from the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad: bālāgra-śata-bhāgasya, śatadhā kalpitasya ca, bhāgo jīvaḥ sa vijñeyaḥ, sa cānantyāya kalpate
When the tip of the hair is divided into one hundred parts, and each part is again divided into one hundred parts, each part is similar in size to the measurement of the soul.
This gives us the idea that the soul is very small. We cannot see it. Whatever is the smallest particle you can study, the soul is still smaller, so you can never find it.
There is, however, another version of the same verse, spoken by Mahāprabhu, that explains the meaning and purpose of the analogy. He adds:
jīvaḥ sūkṣma-svarūpo ’yam, sankhyātīto hi cit-kaṇaḥ
The words “jīvaḥ sūkṣma-svarūpo” indicate that the jīva is extremely subtle. This clarifies that it is not like a gross material particle that can be measured and studied. You see that this clarifies the possible misconception we may have after hearing the original version of the verse.
He then explains that the jīvas are innumerable, saṅkhyātītaḥ, and concludes with cit-kaṇaḥ, stating that, indeed (hi), the soul is a particle of consciousness (cit-kaṇaḥ).
This point gives us the idea that the soul is not measurable at all, being very subtle, and indeed a particle of consciousness instead of a measurable object. Therefore, it is not possible to find it by empirical means. No one should even bother. When the word “particle” is used to describe the soul, it should be taken figuratively, as a way to emphasize that the soul is very minute.
Mādhava Dāsa: So, when it is mentioned that the jīva moves from one body to the other, this means that cit, the consciousness of the soul, together with the false ego, mind, intelligence, and the rest of the subtle body, moves, and not the soul proper?
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: This is a very subtle point. This is one example where the English language gets in the way. The words we use as translations for many terms don’t have the same exact meaning as the original Sanskrit words. Prabhupāda translates the verses in an incredibly clear way, but still, a lot of meaning is given only in the synonyms. That’s why he insisted on including the word-for-word translations in all his books; they are an integral part of the explanation.
There is a good example of this a little later in the same chapter, 4.29.74, which also answers your question.
Mādhava Dāsa: evam pañca-vidham lingam, tri-vṛt ṣoḍaśa vistṛtam, eṣa cetanayā yukto, jīva ity abhidhīyate.
“The five sense objects, the five sense organs, the five knowledge-acquiring senses and the mind are the sixteen material expansions. These combine with the living entity and are influenced by the three modes of material nature. Thus the existence of the conditioned soul is understood.”
... the elements, mind, etc. combine with the living entity? What does it mean?
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: That’s what I was going to explain. This is the answer to your question.
Sometimes, the word “jīva” is used in the sense of ātma, the pure soul in his original, uncontaminated state; this is what we call śuddha-jīva. However, in most passages, the word jīva is used in the sense of jīva-bhūta, the conditioned soul struggling with the senses and mind. We can easily differentiate by the context. We can see in this particular verse that the jīva is described as the combination of the living entity with the material mind and senses. So, the verse speaks about the conditioned soul.
You can see here that Prabhupāda mentions in his purport: “Here it is also explained that the living entity comes in contact with the sixteen material elements and is influenced by the three modes of material nature. The living entity and this combination of elements combine to form what is called jīva-bhūta, the conditioned soul that struggles hard within material nature.”
You can see he uses the word jīva-bhūta; he is speaking about the conditioned soul.
Then, we need to understand what he means by “living entity”.
The point here is that Prabhupāda uses the words “jīva”, “jīvātmā”, and “living entity” almost interchangeably to describe four different ideas in different contexts:
a) The conditioned soul, entrapped in the material reality.
b) The combination of spirit and the subtle body.
c) The particle that transmigrates from one body to another.
d) The pure soul, fully Krsna conscious.
This purport is important to note, because it is one of the few places where Prabhupāda explains this nomenclature. If the word jīva is always taken in the sense of the pure soul, many passages of the scriptures make no sense. One has to understand from the context whether a certain passage speaks about the pure soul or the soul in the conditioned stage to avoid misunderstandings.
When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu says “jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’” (It is the living entity’s constitutional position to be an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa), for example, He speaks about the pure soul, while when SB 4.29.74 mentions evam pañca-vidham lingam, tri-vṛt ṣoḍaśa vistṛtam, eṣa cetanayā yukto, jīva ity abhidhīyate, it speaks about the conditioned soul. One has thus to understand what is referred to in each passage according to the context to avoid misunderstandings.
Now, let’s go to the juicy part. The word-for-word given by Prabhupāda to this verse is:
evam — thus; pañca-vidham — the five sense objects; lingam — the subtle body; tri-vṛt — influenced by the three modes; ṣoḍaśa — sixteen; vistṛtam — expanded; eṣaḥ — this; cetanayā — with the living entity; yuktaḥ — combined; jīvaḥ — the conditioned soul; iti — thus; abhidhīyate — is understood.
The text explains that the subtle body (lingam, in the sense of linga-śarīra or sūkṣma-śarīra, including the subtle senses), plus the five sense objects (pañca-vidham), combine with the consciousness of the soul (cetanā), resulting in the jīva (the conditioned soul).
Mādhava Dāsa: Wait, in the word-for-word, Prabhupāda translates the word cetanayā as “with the living entity.” The natural interpretation is that it refers to the soul proper, the spiritual particle. How does cetanā come to mean the consciousness of the soul?
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: You are becoming sharp!
Prabhupāda explains this in detail in the second half of his purport. He interprets the verse according to the teachings of Lord Kapila in the Third Canto. Here:
“The total material existence is first agitated by the three modes of material nature, and these become the living conditions of the living entity. Thus, the subtle and gross bodies develop, and the ingredients are earth, water, fire, air, sky, and so on. According to Śrī Madhvācārya, when consciousness, the living force in the heart, is agitated by the three modes of material nature, then the subtle body of the living entity, consisting of the mind, the sense objects, the five senses that acquire knowledge, and the five senses for acting in the material condition, becomes possible.”
These are very delicate philosophical principles. Lord Kapila explains that the pure soul doesn’t directly interact with matter. Prabhupāda acknowledges this with his example of oil and water never mixing. Rather, the consciousness of the soul (cetanā) is reflected in matter, creating the conditions for the appearance of the subtle body. When we see the words “jīva,” “soul,” or “living entity,” we need to see what the context is.
In this case, the “jīva” described in the text is clarified as the jīva-bhūta (the conditioned soul) by Prabhupāda in his purport. When we study it in the light of Kapila’s explanation, we can understand that jīva-bhūta here means the conditioned living entity, the consciousness of the soul reflected in matter and identified with it. The three modes of material nature cannot touch the pure soul itself, but they can influence this subtle body, through which the conditioned soul thinks, desires, and acts through the material senses.
Mādhava Dāsa: I think my brain is overheating.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: We can make it simpler with an analogy. The situation of the soul in the material world can be compared to a person seated in a cinema, watching a movie. Even though one doesn’t enter into the movie, this doesn’t prevent a person from being emotionally affected by what he or she sees on the screen, sharing the anxieties of the hero or heroine, crying with them, and so on. At the end of the movie, one is forced to leave the room and join another session, again sharing the happiness and sorrow of the protagonists. In this example, the scenes of the movie are the actions of the senses, conducted by the three modes. The attention of the soul remains imprisoned for a long time.
In reality, we are free to leave at any moment, but this only happens when we are awakened to our real identity by transcendental knowledge. This knowledge is compared to a sword that finally breaks the illusory identification with the gross and subtle bodies, allowing us to become fixed in our original nature of service to the Lord.
When this distinction between “jīva” as the pure soul and “jīva” as the subtle body is understood, everything becomes much simpler.
Lord Kapila also explains this same point. He mentions that the consciousness of the soul, cit, is reflected in matter and then covered by false ego, intelligence, mind, and senses, creating a conditioned identity we call “me”. This material identity created around the reflected consciousness of the soul is the subtle body, which travels from one body to the other in the material world, while the soul itself remains in its original position.
Kṛṣṇa also mentions this point in the Gītā when He defines the soul as “immovable”. The soul proper never leaves its original position in the spiritual sky; what moves from one body to another is the subtle body. This also fits the example of the dream given by Prabhupāda. Just as a person doesn’t leave his bed while dreaming, even though he may go to Africa and be chased by a tiger or go to medieval Japan and become a samurai.
We can even give another example: one doesn’t move from his chair while playing a computer game, even though his consciousness goes to so many virtual places inside of it.
Mādhava Dāsa: I think I can relate to that. That’s why I decided to try to avoid games; it’s like an illusion inside the illusion.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: You are getting the spirit of it. The idea is to reduce illusion, not increase it.
But there is also another philosophical implication.
The word “jīva” in the scriptures is sometimes used to refer to this subtle body that travels around, leading to passages mentioning that the “jīva” was never out of the material world, or that the “jīva” doesn’t have love for Kṛṣṇa. In fact, the subtle body is a material creation and was never out of the material sky, nor does it have love of Godhead inside; these are characteristics of the transcendental soul. In this sense, if you cut the “jīva” open, you will not find love of Godhead inside. Love of Godhead is part of the transcendental soul, not of the material identity.
Currently, we identify with this material identity. The challenge is to again identify with our true nature as eternal servants of Kṛṣṇa, and that’s precisely what we are trying to do through our practice of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness.
Mādhava Dāsa: I think I will need some time to digest all of it.
Gaurāṅga Dāsa: Yes, I think it is time. You can meditate on all these points and come back tomorrow. Then we can finish studying chapter 4.29.
Mādhava closed the book and put it back in his backpack. There were still questions, but now his brain was full with the new concepts Gaurāṅga had just described. He started feeling that many assumptions he took for granted needed another look.
He thanked Gaurāṅga Dāsa and offered his obeisances. As he reached the gate, he turned back.
Mādhava Dāsa: Prabhu, how many times did you read this chapter?
Gaurāṅga Dāsa smiled. “I stopped counting. There is still much to understand.”
On the way home, Mādhava thought about the passages they had just examined. He had read them before, but he had never imagined so much knowledge could be contained in just a few verses. Now he started to understand why Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura once said that we could spend one month studying each verse of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Now he could see that it is not just poetic exaggeration. He wondered how many times Gaurāṅga had sat with these same books, studying and analyzing different passages from different points of view.
Next: Recovering What Was Lost »
Read the entire book:
The Friend Who Never Left, A Dialog on the “Fall” of the Jīva
This is a publication for thoughtful readers who want to go deeper into Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I publish daily, trying to offer high-quality spiritual content, and all posts are available to free subscribers. If you wish, you can support this work with a monthly contribution. When you subscribe, you can choose between a free subscription and a monthly contribution, and you can switch from a free subscriber to a supporter at any time.
You can also receive updates on WhatsApp or Telegram.
If you would like to contribute further, you can find the donation links here.