Srila Prabhupada – “The Supreme Personality of Godhead impregnates the mahat-tattva (material creation) with His internal potency which are the living entities. The mahat-tattva (lifeless matter) is thus “lit up” by the sum total of the consciousness of all the conditioned souls (baddha-jivas)” Srimad Bhagavatam 3.26.19-2).
The mahat-tattva refers to the perishable material creation, which takes up one quarter of the Brahmajyoti, Brahman or Spiritual Sky that includes all the subtle (ethereal) and gross (biological) material bodily vessels that entrap the baddha-jiva soul according to their selfish material desires and good and bad reactions (karma).
The mahat-tattva is the creation of Maha-Vishnu; everything in His innate or lifeless material creation is the manifestation of His dreams and thoughts and is only moved with the appearance of life. It is He who impregnates in the mahat-tattva the baddha-jiva-souls.
So where do those baddha-jivas come from?
Maha-Vishnu brings life to the mahat-tattva by His glance that places baddha-jivas in His ‘mahat-tattva’ bodily material vessels throughout the material creation. These baddha-jivas that are placed in subtle and gross material bodily vessels are actually from the previous mahat-tattva, however there are others who have chosen to come down from Vaikuntha and even Goloka-Vrndavana, not as their nitya-siddha body, but also as their sub-conscious dream state known as the nitya-baddha jiva
This nitya-baddha characteristic of the jiva (marginal living entity) is the secondary inferior manifestation of the marginal living entity that becomes evident when the marginal living entity foolishly chooses to leave Goloka or Vaikuntha, forgetting Krishna and their own eternal nitya-siddha body.
This therefore places the marginal living entities ‘awareness’ of reality as nitya-baddha into the mahat-tattva confined to an unlimited array of material bodily vessels that are all part and parcel of the material dream creation of Maha-Vishnu.
If the marginal living entity or jiva-soul chooses to enter Maha-Vishnu’s material creation by rejecting service Krishna in Goloka as their nitya-siddha Krishna Conscious body, then their ‘awareness’ will no longer be absorbed as who really are as a nitya-siddha body (svarupa vigraha).
Just like darkness (compared to the nitya-baddha consciousness) is created by the absence of light (compared to the nitya-siddha body), the inferior nitya-baddha conscious ‘conditioned awareness’ only exists when the jiva forgets their nitya-siddha Krishna Conscious body.
The jiva-soul or the marginal living entity is now manifest as its nitya-baddha secondary ‘awareness’ where one’s material desires will be given the facility of a material ethereal and biological vessels that are within the dreams of Maha-Vishnu which are containments, bodily vessels or ornament belonging to the mahat-tattva creation of Maha-Vishnu.
Such material bodies are available to an unlimited number of marginal living entities via their secondary baddha-jiva condition if they choose to ignore Krishna and live out their material desires.
In this way, the mahat-tattva along with all its material vessels, are continuously created and annihilated with the creation and destruction of each mahat-tattva, the trapped baddha-jiva within those material bodies simply goes along for the cosmic ride bound by karma in search of selfish material so called pleasures in an attempt to lord it over the material energy. All these trapped baddha-jivas take refuge within the Body of Maha-Vishnu when the mahat-tattva is annihilated if they are not qualified to go Back Home, Back to Godhead.
Others like advanced impersonalist yogis can take shelter in their own inactive or dormant consciousness by ceasing all desires and actions with much difficulty, which really is a dreamless dream state of the baddha-jiva.
Therefore the impersonal aspect of the Brahman or Brahmajyoti is certainly not some place in the creation where baddha-jivas merge into as some foolishly believe but is rather a state of individual consciousness.
The Brahman or ‘impersonal Brahmajyoti’ or the impersonal feature of the Spiritual Sky is actually a very small minority of jiva-souls or marginal living entities who experience this in their baddha-jiva second-rate characteristic that become further trapped in that ‘impersonal’ dormant state due to the influence of being covered then eventually frustrated by the temporary material bodies within the mahat-tattva that souls fall to and are covered (material vessels that belong to the mahat-tattva) by when they long, long, long, long, long ago chose to no longer serve Krsna in Goloka or Vaikuntha
In other words, when jiva-souls or marginal living entities in the nitya-baddha condition become fed up with the material creation of changing material bodies or vessels, they can escape this cycle of birth and death by either realizing their full potential nitya-siddha body that is always in Goloka even while they ‘envision’ themselves to be in the mahat-tattva, or they can cease to desire bodily activity (after much difficulty of casting off those subtle and gross material bodies) and enter an inactive dormant state of consciousness that each marginal living entity has the capacity of expression, in this case ‘impersonal’ inactivity.
Although due to the inherent nature of the baddha-jiva is activity, the impersonal Brahman condition is also temporary. The individual baddha-jivas who ‘manifest’ this ‘dormant consciousness’ are expressing the impersonal side of their nature and is known as the impersonal Brahmajyoti feature of the marginal living entity. In other words the impersonal Brahmajyoti is the dormant inactive characteristic of the ‘baddha’-jiva’
The gross characteristics of the material universe that houses biological bodies as well as there innate or lifeless remnants left over after the embodied baddha-jiva, contained in the ethereal vessel, gives up or is forced to give up the outer gross biological material vessel, is totally different than the underlining subtle body (ethereal) or universe that takes up 99% of the material universe or mahat-tattva.
Modern science therefore can only register or view less than 1% of the material universes where the middle planetary systems exist, where as the other 99% of the subtle or ethereal material creation cannot be seen with gross biological eyes or its extensions of gross material technology. Science calls un measurable sub-space material matter ‘dark matter’ however if they see it then it is only part of the gross material worlds
So only 1% of the material universe is made up of gross matter and biological bodily vessels. All dead matter such as dust, rocks, sand, atmosphere comes from the presence of life, left over from the presence of biological infatuated self-centred baddha-jivas trapped with the cycle of birth and death.
Scientific advancement such as the Hubble Telescope, the Electron Microscope and the Large Hadron Collider (atom smasher) are also made out of this gross matter, which means these instruments cannot register the subtle ethereal material universe that takes up 99% of the mahat-tattva material creation, what to speak of the Vaikunthas.
Therefore the greater majority of the material universe, not to be misunderstood as spiritual (Vaikuntha/Goloka) is the subtle material (ethereal universe and home of the demigods and hellish worlds) that can never be measured by any gross instrument or biological means in the material universe.
Therefore 99% of the mahat-tattva (material universe) is not seen with biological eyes or even measured by any kind of gross material technology no matter how advanced.
Only pious or impious activities can reveal both the heavenly and hellish words to an individual however, there is no gross material way other than by the path of self realization under the guidance of a Guru can this be realized, experienced and understood and attain AGAIN attain Vaikuntha beyond the subtle and gross material worlds.
Srila Prabhupada - “The living entity wants to imitate Krsna and tries to lord it over material nature; thus he forgets his original position, and his illuminating power, his spiritual identity, (their nitya-siddha body is forgotten) is extinguish. However, if a living entity takes to Krsna consciousness, he is reinstated in his original position. Bhaktivedanta purport of the Eighty-seventh Chapter of Krsna, “Prayers by the Personified Vedas.”
Srila Prabhupada – “Sages and saints like Narada and the Kumaras are travelling all over the universe educating people and encouraging their disciples to preach this process of devotional service so all the conditioned souls may be able to revive their original consciousness, or Krsna consciousness, and thus gain relief from the miserable conditions of material life”. Bhaktivedanta purport of the Eighty-seventh Chapter of Krsna, “Prayers by the Personified Vedas.”
There is no origin to our ‘svarupa or nitya-siddha body’. Every marginal living entity has an authentic nitya-siddha svarupa or sat-cit-ananda- vigraha body in Goloka-Vrndavana. Unlike the material world in the Spiritual worlds of Vaikuntha and Goloka-Vrndavana, we are our body.
This they can realize even now while trapped in their lower nitya-baddha dreaming self if one again turns to Krishna Consciousness. On the other hand, the rebellious marginal living entity trapped in their baddha-jiva selfish expression, can almost never realize their true bodily nitya-siddha identity if they continue to choose to remain nitya-baddha and continue to misuse their free will and not desire to ‘again’ become Krishna Conscious.
Srila Prabhupada – “By the grace of Krishna, we have complete freedom. Because the Lord is kind to us, we can live anywhere, either in the spiritual sky or in the material sky, upon whichever planet we desire. However, misuse of this freedom causes one to fall down into the material world and suffer the threefold miseries of conditioned life. Milton in Paradise Lost nicely illustrates the living of a miserable life in the material world by dint of the soul’s choice. Similarly, by choice, the soul can regain paradise and return home, back to Godhead.” Caitanya-Caritamrita, Adi Lila 5.22, Purport
Factually, without free will, there would be no need to have the mahat-tattva (material creation) however, because we DO have the free will to serve Krishna or reject Krishna, there is a need to have the mahat-tattva just like our society has the need to have a jail.
Without free will how can there be genuine love and service? There has to be a choice and that is why we are called ‘marginal’ living entities. Each marginal living entity has the nitya-siddha body in Goloka and, if they choose, the nitya baddha consciousness (surrogate) that takes shelter within material bodily vessels provided by Maha-Vishnu within His mahat-tattva material creation.
A devotee asked Srila Prabhupada what he had been praying for, and Srila Prabhupada said, “I was praying that I may not fall down from devotional service.” The devotee responded, “But Srila Prabhupada, a pure devotee like you never falls down.” Srila Prabhupada replied, “A pure devotee never falls down because he is always praying that he may not fall down.”
Comment posted by Gauragopala dasa on December 25th, 2010
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