WE ARE ALL ORIGINALLY
KRISHNA CONSCIOUS ENTITIES

by Bhakta Eric Johanson
edited by Sriman Kailasa Candra dasa
Despite the world wide impact of the mission of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the effort to minimize his importance survives and continues. Srila Prabhupada was empowered to present real Krishna consciousness to the far flung corners of martyaloka. Millions of non-devotees were given the opportunity to hear the Holy Name of Krishna due to his activities and those of his many disciples. Srila Prabhupada’s many translations of the most prominent devotional scriptures remain thirty years later as the most widely available versions of these texts. The sheer volume of the number of books distributed in a relatively short time demonstrated the dynamic version of his bhakti movement. He literally brought the Name of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to every town and village. It is practically impossible to avoid the conclusion that he was the personality empowered by Krishna and predicted by Srila Bhaktivinode Takura. Because Prabhupada was the most recent sampradaya acarya, a shaktyavesa avatar, it behooves all sincere Gaudiya Vaishnavas to unite around him and accept his teachings and instructions as definitive, non-different from those of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna .

Despite this, there remain no shortage of devotees and so-called gurus who blindly stick to conclusions that oppose those given by Srila Prabhupada. Nevertheless, these same devotees benefit from the books and knowledge of Krishna consciousness that were previously given by Srila Prabhupada. These groups usually give superficial praise to the achievements of His Divine Grace in order to initially attract new members. Once they join, however, it is only then that ideas and conclusions, which Srila Prabhupada would have completely opposed during his manifest presence, are introduced.

“Of course, everyone has a particular relationship with the Lord, and that relationship is evoked by the perfection of devotional service. But in the present status of our life, we have not only forgotten the Supreme Lord, but we have forgotten our eternal relationship with the Lord. Every living being. . . has a particular relationship with the Lord eternally. That is called svarupa. By the process of devotional service, one can revive that svarupa, and that stage is called svarupa-siddhi—perfection of one’s constitutional position . . . We have an intimate relationship with the Lord, and because we are all qualitatively one . . . the whole purpose of Bhagavad-gita is to revive our sanatana occupation, or sanatana dharma, which is the eternal occupation of the living entity . . . The Lord descends to reclaim all of these fallen, conditioned souls to call them back to the sanatana eternal sky so that the sanatana living entities may regain their eternal sanatana positions of eternal association with the Lord.” Bhagavad-gita, Introduction. (Emphasis added)

The primary issue where many contemporary Vaishnava cults diverge from the version of Srila Prabhupada is in regard to the origin of the living entity or jiva soul. Srila Prabhupada taught repeatedly that the origin of the living entity was in the spiritual world and that, due to the misuse of his free will, he fell into this temporary world of illusion and repeated birth and death. Any serious follower of His Divine Grace knows that this was one of the core concepts of Prabhupada’s presentation of Krishna consciousness.

"As living spiritual souls we are all originally Krsna conscious entities, but due to our association with matter from time immemorial, our consciousness has now become polluted by the material atmosphere." (Original Hare Krsna album)

“As soon as we try to become Lord, immediately we are covered by Maya. Formerly, we were with Krsna in His lila or sport. But this covering of Maya may be of very, very, very, very long duration-therefore, many creations are coming and going. Due to this long period of time, it is sometimes said that we are ever-conditioned. But this long duration of time becomes very insignificant when one actually comes to Krsna consciousness. This Brahma-sayujya mukti is non-permanent. Every living entity wants pleasure, but brahma-sayujya is minus pleasure. There is eternal existence only. So when they do not find transcendental bliss they fall down to make a compromise with material bliss. Unless one develops full devotional service to Krsna, 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 Krsna consciousness, this period becomes insignificant, just like dreaming. Because he falls down from brahma sayujya, he thinks that may be his origin, but he does not remember that before that even, he was with Krsna.” THE ORIGIN OF THE JIVA: BRAHMAJYOTI OR KRISHNA LILA? - Australian conversation with Srila Prabhupada Transcribed as Nectar of the Month, BBT Report, January, 1982)

Bhaktijana: When the souls that were never conditioned at all..., do they also have the independence?
Prabhupada: Yes, but they have not misused. They know that "I am meant for Krsna’s service," and they are happy in Krsna’s service.
Bhaktijana: Could they ever misuse it?
Prabhupada: Yes, they can misuse it also. That power is there. Yes?
Devotee: Well, I believe you once said that once a conditioned soul becomes perfected and gets out of the material world and he goes to Krsnaloka, there’s no possibility of falling back.
Prabhupada: No! There is possibility, but he does not come. Just like after putting your hand in the fire, you never put it again if you are really intelligent. So those who are going back to Godhead, they become intelligent. Why going back to Godhead? Just like we are in renounced order of life. So we have renounced our family life after thinking something. Now, if somebody comes, "Swamiji, you take thousand millions of dollars and marry again and become a family man," I’ll never become, because I have got my bad experience. I’ll never become. . . . . ..
Bhaktijana: Has my soul ever been liberated?
Prabhupada: That you know. I do not know.
Bhaktijana: If I was once liberated...
Prabhupada: You are liberated. You are liberated. Simply just a cloud has covered you. Drive away the cloud. There is no question that you were ever. You are ever-liberated. That, the sky is always spiritual, but it is sometimes overcrowded with cloud, this maya. This is called maya. Actually, you are not conditioned. You are thinking. Just like in the dream you are thinking that tiger is eating you. You were never eaten by tiger. There is no tiger. So we have to get out of this dream. Don’t you sometimes dream that tiger is eating you? Is there any tiger? You are simply thinking. So if you keep in Krsna consciousness, that nonsense thinking will go away. Therefore we have to keep ourself always in Krsna-thinking so that this dream will never come. If you are always awakened, then dream never comes. So keep yourself always awakened by Krsna consciousness. All right. Distribute prasadam. (end) (Lecture on Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila 7.108--San Francisco, February 18, 1967) (Emphasis added)

The understanding that the conditioned souls all originally fell from the spiritual world was something every beginner in Srila Prabhupada’s movement understood in the first few of days of his hearing about Krishna . We have explored this topic in-depth in several other articles on our website, and the reader is invited to go through these for a more thorough understanding. (see hyperlink later in this article) For the decade that Srila Prabhupada’s movement was in its growth stage, there was never a second opinion about this issue.

It was only after the departure of Srila Prabhupada from manifest presence that some of his alleged followers began to espouse a conflicting view about the origin of the living entity. Coincidently, all of these had some subsequent contact with the godbrothers of Srila Prabhupada and/or their disciples. To compound the controversy, virtually all of them were under the opposing idea that any living entity in the material world has never been in the spiritual world.

Srila Prabhupada’s godbrothers were not at all prepared to give up what they had been teaching their followers in India for decades and defer to what Srila Prabhupada was teaching. Most of his godbrothers never regarded Srila Prabhupada as a big player in the movement of their guru, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada. There were any number of them who openly deprecated his efforts preaching in the West and accused him of cheapening Krishna consciousness in making it available there.

Although the real movement of any great spiritual master is the instructions he gives -- as well as those who sincerely follow them -- such movements have an institutional representation authorized by him during his manifest presence. The International Society For Krishna Consciousness or ISKCON was the name of the institution founded by Srila Prabhupada in 1966, and it was managed by the GBC, a group of men hand picked by Srila Prabhupada to take care of the nuts-and-bolts management of his world-wide movement. After his disappearance, eleven of these men unauthorizedly appointed themselves successors to His Divine Grace and demanded the rest of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples accept them on virtually the same level as Srila Prabhupada. It was the blowback from this heavy-handed treatment that severely divided Srila Prabhupada’s movement and led many senior disciples to look for guidance elsewhere.

Some of these approached Srila Prabhupada’s godbrothers in hope of a solution. Ironically, the godbrother of Srila Prabhupada who made himself most available had also been very instrumental in advocating and encouraging the arrangement where the eleven had assumed their complete dominance. This godbrother also had been teaching the “no-fall” hypothesis in regard to the origin of the living entity. It was through him, therefore, that this teaching initially began to spread among those who had become disaffected by the GBC. This deviation spread.

The name “no-fall” comes from the assertion that once a purified jiva goes to the spiritual world, he does not come back to the temporary material world. In other words, according to them there is “no-fall” from the spiritual world.

“That abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by electricity. One who reaches it never returns to this material world.” (Bhagavad-gita 15.6)

It is very easy to conclude the “no-fall” interpretation after reading this verse. However, the problem then becomes explaining where the living being has been for all eternity both in the material world and prior to his coming here.

It is not difficult to interpret Bg. 15.6 in a manner that is in complete accordance with Srila Prabhupada’s other statements. If a patient has a long term serious illness, he has have to make repeated visits to the hospital. If he is finally cured by a competent physician, people will say that so-and-so “never” has to return to the hospital. However, this does not mean that there is no possibility of his again becoming ill, with the same or some other disease, in the future. In other words, when the conditioned soul is delivered from his past karma by accepting the process of devotional service to the Lord and develops love of God, he is no longer spiritually sick and therefore not required to accept repeated births and deaths in the material world. He can, however, again misuse his free will in the spiritual world and have to undergo the misery all over again. The memory of his prior falldown will, of course, be a powerful preventative impetus to not make the same mistake again.

When the tatastha condition was discussed by Prabhupada it was in terms of the proper and improper use of the free will by the individual jiva soul, it was the infinitesimal free will available to the jiva, when misused, that caused him to fall under the material potencies of the Lord. It is the clear explanation of the concept of free will that makes Srila Prabhupada’s version the correct and superior one. According to him, free will is eternal and, therefore, does not arise all of a sudden when the sleeping jiva somehow awakens from his prior slumber within the body of Maha Vishnu. As pointed out in our article OUR ETERNAL CONSTITUTIONAL POSITION AND THE MAHA-VISHNU ORIGINATION THEORY by Sriman Kailasa Candra dasa, the jiva who rejects the service of the Lord upon “awakening” has no means to know what the service of the Lord is if he has never been engaged in it previously. Therefore, according to the “no-fall” hypothesis, his condemnation to suffering continual birth and death in the material world is ultimately due to God’s arrangement and not to his own envy. “No-fall” posits an arbitrary Supreme Being.

Srila Prabhupada’s version, on the other hand, is that each being in the material world has consciously rejected the supremacy of God and that, immediately upon doing so, he is overcome by the covering potency (avaranatmika-shakti) of the material energy and placed in the cycle of birth and death. It is when he again revives his attitude of pure service to Krishna that he again returns to the spiritual world.

Svarupa Damodara: The spirit soul must necessarily have a body, either spiritual or material.
Prabhupada: He has got already spiritual body. Material body is his covering. It is unnatural. Real body is spiritual. Just like your coat, this is unnatural. But your real body is natural. Otherwise how transmigration is possible? I am accepting different unnatural bodies. Unnatural means to my constitution. My real constitutional body is servant of Krsna. So, so long I do not come to that position, I remain servant of nature and I get so many bodies. . . . . . . .
Paramahamsa: But ultimately if we come to Krsna, there’s no return. But nevertheless, Jagai, and..., the two gatekeepers, they returned?
Prabhupada: There is return, that is voluntary. Return there is.
Paramahamsa: If we want.
Prabhupada: Yes.
Paramahamsa: So we can come to the spiritual world and return?
Prabhupada: Yes.
Paramahamsa: Fall down?
Prabhupada: Yes. As soon as we try, "Oh, this material world is very nice," "Yes," Krsna says, "yes, you go." Just like nobody is interested in Krsna consciousness. Do you think everyone is interested? So. They want to enjoy this material world. Otherwise what is the meaning of free will? Every living entity has got a little free will. And Krsna is so kind, He gives him opportunity, "All right, you enjoy like this." Just like some of our students, Krsna conscious, sometimes go away, again come back. It is free will, not stereotyped. Just like one goes to the prisonhouse, not that government welcomes, "Come on. We have got prisonhouse. Come here, come here." He goes out of his free will; again comes out, again goes. Like that. Krsna-bahirmukha hana bhoga vancha kare, nikata-stha maya tare japatiya dhare. The police is there. Just like the police car was there. We have nothing to do with it. But if you do anything criminal, immediately you will be arrested, under police custody. The maya may be there, but maya captures him who is not a devotee of Krsna. That’s all. Therefore, mam eva ye prapadyante mayam etam taranti te: "Anyone who surrenders unto Me, maya does not interfere anymore."
Paramahamsa: So our desire to enjoy, we achieve these bodies; and our desire to achieve Krsna brings us to our natural position.
Prabhupada: Yes. (Morning Walk At Cheviot Hills Golf Course--May 13, 1973, Los Angeles) (Emphasis added)

This version is also supported by the previous spiritual masters.

“However, because of contact with matter, the imprisoned soul loses the memory of his original spiritual form in Vaikuntha. . . material rasas are perverted reflections of the soul's original spiritual rasas.” - Srila Bhaktivinoda Takura, Prema-pradipa, p. 83

“It is the jivas who are the attendants in His Sports. They become attached to matter, having deviated from their own essential nature as the result of their desire for enjoyment. But when again the soul . . . gains true wisdom of the transcendental region of God . . . he begins to get back his pure essential nature” . . . - Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada, Sri Caitanya's Teachings, p. 323.

Sentimental and self-interested people will tend to overlook philosophical differences to proclaim a state of harmony. Genuine transcendentalists, however, will examine all conclusions, according to the scriptures in a threadbare manner, before declaring true Krishna conscious unity. Many godbrothers of Srila Prabhupada and their followers clearly do not agree with Srila Prabhupada on the issue of the origin of the living entity. Since their arguments contradict the conclusions of the empowered shaktyavesa avatar, they should give up their inferior conclusions.

The hesitancy of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples to accept those followers of the godbrothers is called an offense in some neo-Gaudiya circles. Followers of Srila Prabhupada who do not defer to those leaders are generally depicted as crude Westerners, who do not thoroughly understand Vaishnava etiquette.

What actually underlies the proclaimed “harmony,” however, is disregard, minimization, and sometimes outright envy of Srila Prabhupada, and of his transcendental achievements, generated when some of his godbrothers could not accept Srila Prabhupada’s worldwide success. Despite the overwhelming evidence of Srila Prabhupada being the successor to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada, the next sampradaya acarya, it is doubtful that all the current followers of Srila Prabhupada’s godbrothers (the neo-Gaudiya math) would agree to place his name after Srila Bhaktisiddhanta in the disciplic succession of parampara acharyas. They do not all accept Srila Prabhupada’s version of Krishna conscious philosophy as superior. There can be no real Krishna conscious harmony on such a basis. No sincere follower of Srila Prabhupada is going to want to embrace concepts which are rooted in contradictory teachings.

The counter-argument is sometimes given that Srila Prabhupada agreed with his godbrothers that conditioned souls have never been in the spiritual world. It claims that he only apparently presented the opposite in order to attract people who had been raised in the Christian tradition. This argument holds very little water for anyone who has spent more than a few days reading Srila Prabhupada’s books and listening to his audio lectures. That some followers of the godbrothers claim that Srila Prabhupada was deceiving his disciples on this topic is just another indication of the esteem they actually now have for him. Their current policies are really not too different from what Srila Prabhupada’s godbrothers held he was physically present.

In approaching Srila Prabhupada’s godbrothers for siddhanta, we should remember his warning:

“We shall be very careful about them and not mix with them. This is my instruction to you all. They cannot help us in our movement, but they are very competent to harm our natural progress. So we must be very careful about them.” Letter to: Rupanuga — Tirupati 28 April, 1974

He was also concerned that the godbrothers would teach something to his followers that contradicted his own instructions. History has shown these concerns well founded.

Srila Prabhupada brought the Vaishnava philosophy out of India and placed it at the center of the world stage. As a result of his preaching, billions of people heard the Holy Name for the first time. The destiny of the entire planet was substantially affected for the better by this one devotee. The potency of his preaching was shown by the sheer number of disciples who gave up degraded habits in order to become saintly. Srila Prabhupada did far more than popularize a certain religious faith. He brought the idea of the Absolute Truth before the attention of anyone who was serious about the purpose of life.

“One should be humble and know that he is subordinate to the Supreme Lord. Due to rebellion against the Supreme Lord, one becomes subordinate to material nature. One must know and be convinced of this truth.” Bhagavad-gita, 13.12, purport. (Emphasis added)

“Actually, the living entity is originally the spiritual part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, but due to his rebellious nature, he is conditioned within material nature. It really does not matter how these living entities or superior entities of the Supreme Lord have come into contact with material nature. The Supreme Personality of Godhead knows, however, how and why this actually took place.” Bhagavad-gita, 13.20, purport (Emphasis added)

“In his original state, there is no doubt of enjoyment; therefore, that is his real state.” Bhagavad-gita, 13.21, purport.

Real harmony is possible only when we accept the supremacy and order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna . We are all His eternal servants. That service and subordination comes through His recognized representatives, the acaryas who have come in disciplic succession. All glories to the shaktyavesa avatar, the most recent sampradaya acarya, Om Vishnupada Paramahansa Parivrajakacarya Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Quotes from the books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada are copyright by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust