Gauragopala Das ACBSP: We should ALWAYS remember the jiva-souls (marginal living entities) are PERSONALIST with their own individual identity and unique personality.

Sadly today in 2021 still exists a very subtle expression of impersonalism, where one is always told what to do and think, instead of being trained up to voluntarily think for themselves of how to serve the Spiritual Master and Krsna in their own unique personal way.

Devotees have to be encouraged to think for themselves and take responsibility for their own actions by being encouraged to make their own choices of how to voluntarily serve the Spiritual Master and Kṛṣṇa.

We should ALWAYS remember the jiva-souls (marginal living entities) are PERSONALIST with their own individual identity and unique personality.

This establishes what being a PERSON really is, that perpetually exist in Vaikuntha and Goloka-Vrindavana, where the jiva-souls voluntarily contribute to their relationship with Krsna in a "two-way" exchange of loving reciprocation that forever expands the relationship with Krsna due to those voluntary inputs.

ln other words, being a contributing individual PERSON can NEVER manifest in a "one-way" mindless dictatorship.

Therefore being a PERSONALIST in the Spiritual World's of Vaikuntha and Goloka Vrindavana means you MUST have your "free will" in order to express yourself voluntarily as an individual and contribute to those loving exchanges with Krsna.

Otherwise you are just a programmed "yes man or women" in a mindless collective who are never encouraged or nurtured to think for themselves and contribute from their own independent ability of self expression.

The Spiritual Worlds are NOT an impersonal collective of jiva-souls who all think and act in the same way like mindless robots in a factory who are always controlled and programmed by the factory owner.

Love is NEVER like that because love can NEVER exist on a "one way street", you MUST have your free will too, to make it a "two way" exchange of voluntary offerings.

As said above, the "Spiritual World's of Vaikuntha and Goloka Vrindavana are NOT a dictatorial "one way" impersonal directive, or a domineering demanding realm that denies personal contributions, where a so called God does all the thinking and decision making for everyone.

No, the Spiritual Planets are NOT impersonal or emotionally stagnant like that.

The fact is in Vaikuntha and Goloka Vrindavana (the Kingdoms of God) there are ALWAYS loving exchanges, cooperation, personal unique voluntary individual contributions being offered by the jiva-souls based on "free will" that encourages loving enriching reciprocation between Krsna and His devotees, because without these attributes there can NEVER be love.

Srila Prabhupada - "Love is reciprocal, voluntary, good exchange of feeling. Then there is love. Not by force, no, Krsna does not want to become a lover like that"(Washington DC July 8, 1976)

Therefore devotion is ALWAYS a "two way" street where the jiva-souls also have their own unique individual personality separate from Krsna's Personality, that allows them to add their own unique personal expressions into the relationship with Kṛṣṇa that expands and forever enhances and enriches one's friendship with Krsna.

Krsna will NEVER "force" us to do what we do not "choose" to do in Vaikuntha or Goloka-Vrindavana because we are NOT Krsna's mindless "yes" men or women who only do what they are told to think and act without providing personal voluntary contributions.

Srila Prabhupada - "Krsna does not want to become a lover by force, from the point of revolver. ‘You love me, otherwise I shall kill you!’ That is not love; that is threatening.

Love is reciprocal, voluntary, good exchange of feeling. Then there is love. Not by force; that is rape. Why one is called lover, another is called rape?” (July 8, 1976 in Washington, D.C.)

So clearly surrendering to Krsna and His pure devotees is NOT impersonal, it does NOT mean giving up your intelligence, free will, individuality and the awareness of being an independent unique contributing person you are eternally.

The Spiritual Worlds of Vaikuntha and Goloka Vrindavana are NOT an impersonal domineering mindless place for the individual jiva souls in their relationship with Krsna or God.

No, the Kingdom of God is not like that in anyway, there is ALWAYS voluntary loving exchanges of feelings and emotions going on based on between Krsna and His devotees.

The jiva-soul's position in the spiritual world is voluntary.

Srila Prabhupada - “The jiva-soul's position in the spiritual world is voluntary, some devotee wants to serve Krsna as flower; they become flower there.

If I want that, to be a flower, I shall lie down at the lotus feet of Krsna as a flower, voluntarily, and he can change his, from flower to human body.

That is spiritual life. There is no restriction.

If some devotee wants to serve Krsna as cow, he serves Krsna as cow, as calf, as flower, as plant, as water, as ground, field, or as father, as mother, as friend, as beloved, anything. It is inconceivable, yet a fact". (Srimad Bhagavatam 6.1.1-4 - Melbourne, May 20, 1975)

The Supreme Personality of Godhead and cause of ALL causes Lord Krsna, also expands into the material creation as Karanodakshayi Visnu (Maha-Visnu)

From the four armed Bodily form of Maha-Visnu, all the billions material massive universes (Brahmandas) originate from the pores of His skin and His breathing.

Maha-Visnu creates all the material universes (Brahmandas) that take up 1/4 of the Spiritual Sky, unlike the other 3/4s of the Spiritual Sky that is forever permanent, eternally youthful and where there is no birth, old age or death.

The material creation on the other hand is temporary and always in a state of continious maintenance because of decay.

Everything in the material creation fades away over the time of past, present and future in the material universal worlds (known as Brahmanda universes that each have an inner secondary universe deep inside them)

Because of this decay in the material creation, there is always repeated birth, disease, old age and death going on.

This means for those jiva souls who have foolishly chosen to enter the material creation, are constantly forced to change material bodily vessels they are in, because such material biological bodies are always in a state of decline decomposition and end in death.

Maha-Visnu further expands as Garbhodakashayi Visnu who resides deep inside His own "secondary universe" that is deep inside the greater surrounding outer Brahmanda universe.

From Garbhodakashayi Visnu, Lord Brahma appears and creates (builds) the different planetary systems (lower, middle and heavenly) in each material universe within their Brahmanda, our inner material universe has 14 planetary systems in it.

The amount of planetary systems deep inside each Brahmanda universe is based on how many heads each Brahma has, in our universe our Brahma has four heads.

However, other universes inside their Brahmanda can have many, many, many more planetary systems depending on how many heads their Lord Brahma has.

Some Brahmas have 20, 50, 100, 500, 50,000 or 10,000,000 heads which means many inner universes are massive.

Our secondary material universe inside our outer Brahmanda universe encasing it, is only 4 billion miles in diameter (12 billion 570 million circumference of our spherical universe inside the Brahmanda) according to the 5th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam.

On the other hand, the massive size of our Brahmanda universe that houses our "secondary universe" where Garbhodakashayi Visnu, Brahma and the 14 planetary systems are found, is 44 quadrillion, 444 trillion, 444 billion miles in diameter.

Thia is approximately 141 quadrillion, 252 trillion miles in circumference of the almost spherical Brahmanda universe, or twice that figure if measured from the outer edge our inner secondary universe inside our Brahmanda universe, according to calculations in the 5th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam.

Other Brahmanda universes in the material creation are much bigger than ours, found in the material creation in all different sizes, depending on how many heads each Brahma has as explained above.

So to be clear, deep inside each Brahmanda universe, there is a smaller secondary material universe where Maha-Visnu expands as Garbhodakashayi Visnu, and from Him Lord Brahma appears from a lotus flower growing from Garbhodakashayi Visnu's naval, who then creates the inner secondary universe that houses the many planetary systems.

Maha-Visnu expands again to a third Visnu known as the Ksirodakashayi Visnu (Supersoul or Paramatma) who accompanies all marginal living entities (jiva-souls) who choose to leave the Spiritual Worlds of Vaikuntha and Goloka Vrindavana (3/4 of the Spiritual Sky) and enter the material creation (1/4 of the Spiritual Sky)

All the massive Brahmanda universes first enter the material creation through the bodily pores and each breath of Maha-Visnu, and are destroyed when He breaths in.

The time between each breath of Maha Visnu (or between the creations of the many Brahmanda universes) in human years, is 311 trillion 40 billion years which is also the life span of Brahma.

Devotion is a ALWAYS a "two-way" street that ONLY genuinely exists in its full potential in Vaikuntha and Goloka-Vrindavana.

In these Spiritual Worlds the individual jiva-souls (marginal living entities) voluntarily contribute their own unique expressions of loving service in their relationship with Krsna.

Without this basic rule of loving exchanges in the Spiritual Planets, then there can NEVER be genuine love or service in one's relationship with Krsna.

Intrusive directives are expressed in a forced "one way" mood is meant to manipulate, dominate and control the jiva-souls to obey without question.

Such "one-way" leadership demanding one obey without questioning, denies any personal voluntary contributions that expand, enrich and enhance personal loving relationships, only fully experienced in a "two way" relationship of exchanges.

Such a "one-way" forced surrender to God is NOT love at all, it is a selfish, impersonal spiritually dead version of God's Kingdom.

The Spiritual Worlds of Visnu's Vaikuntha Planets, and Krsna's Goloka Vrindavana central spiritual Abode, are NOT like that in anyway!

They are NOT a dictatorial "one-way" impersonal directive, or a domineering demanding dictatorship that denies personal contributions, where God or Krsna does all the thinking and decision making for everyone.

No, the Spiritual Planets are NOT impersonal, mindless or emotionally dead like that.

The fact is, in Vaikuntha and Goloka Vrindavana (the REAL Kingdom of God) there are ALWAYS loving exchanges, cooperation, personal unique individual contributions going on, based on "free will", that forever enriches loving reciprocation between Krsna and His devotees.

The fact is without these wonderful attributes Prabhupada has made many of us realise by his following comments, there can never be love.

Srila Prabhupada - "Love is reciprocal, voluntary, good exchange of feeling. Then there is love. Not by force, no, Krsna does not want to become a lover like that" (Washington DC July 8, 1976).

Therefore "loyalty" and devotion is ALWAYS a "two-way" street where the jiva souls have their own unique individual personality separate from Krsna's Personality, who can freely add their own personal unique expressions of devotion into the relationship, that expands and forever enhances, enriches and adds unlimited positive variety to one's friendship and relationship with Krsna

Krsna will NEVER "force" us to do what we do not "choose" to do in Vaikuntha or Goloka-Vrindavana, there all service is voluntary.

This is because we are NOT Krsna's mindless "yes" men or women who are controlled how to think and act in every way like a puppet master impersonally controls his puppets with the movement of strings.

Srila Prabhupada - "Krsna does not want to become a lover by force, from the point of revolver. ‘You love me, otherwise I shall kill you!’ That is not love; that is threatening.

Love is reciprocal, voluntary, good exchange of feeling. Then there is love.

NOT by force; that is rape. Why one is called lover, another is called rape?” (July 8, 1976 in Washington, D.C.)

So clearly, surrender to Krsna and His pure devotees is NOT impersonal.

It does NOT mean giving up your intelligence, free will, individuality and the awareness of being an independent unique contributing person you are eternally.

The Spiritual Worlds are NOT an impersonal domineering mindless place for the individual jiva-souls in their relationship with Krsna or God.

No, in the Kingdom of God (Krsna's Abode) there are ALWAYS voluntary loving exchanges of feelings, emotions and service going on, based on reciprocation between Krsna and His devotees.

Srila Prabhupada - “The jiva-soul's position in the spiritual world is voluntary. Some devotee wants to serve Krsna as flower; they become flower there.

If I want that - "As a flower I shall lie down at the lotus feet of Krsna," he becomes flower, voluntarily, and he can change his, from flower to human body.

That is spiritual life. There is no restriction.

If some devotee wants to serve Krsna as cow, he serves Krsna as cow, as calf, as flower, as plant, as water, as ground, field, or as father, as mother, as friend, as beloved, anything. It is inconceivable, yet a fact". (Srimad Bhagavatam 6.1.1-4 - Melbourne, May 20, 1975)

Srila Prabhupada - "If you have no free will, then you are a stone. The stone has no free will. You want to be stone? Then you MUST have free will! But don't misuse your free will. But don't try to become stone either. That is not life". (August 5, 1976, New Mayapur France)

One's relationship with God (Krsna) in His Kingdom is NEVER a one sided master/slave mindless none contributing dictatorship as explained above, Prabhupada is warning us here.

The jiva-souls in Vaikuntha and Goloka-Vrindavana are forever voluntarily expanding their personal expressions and unique individuality with an increasing expanding variety of personal devotional offerings based on free will.

Srila Prabhupada - ''We have got the propensity to love. Love means somebody else. Love cannot be one or love cannot be executed only one, personally. There must be another one.

I love somebody; somebody loves me, there must be lover, there must be beloved, and the transaction, then love''. (Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 1 Chapter 2 text 6, Delhi, November 12, 1973)

Srila Prabhupada - ''Love means you take and you give also. Suppose if you love somebody and you simply take from him, but you don't give. Oh, do you think it is very good? No. It is not good. That is NOT love. That is exploitation.

If I go on simply taking from you, and if I don't offer you anything, that is simply exploitation. (Lecture on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 9 text 2-5, New York, November 23, 1966)

Srila Prabhupāda – ”Unless there are two persons, where is the question of love?

Love means two persons, then there is exchange, then there is love.

I must deal with you open-hearted, you must deal with me open-hearted, then there is love.

So if you want to love Kṛṣṇa, God, then these things must be there”. (August 9, 1976, Tehran)

Srila Prabhupada - ''Their (impersonalist) philosophy is oneness. So how there be love with just one? Is it possible?

Have you got any such experience that love means one? No. Love means two.

There MUST be two, the lover and the beloved. Kṛṣṇa is already lover. He loves you so much that He's trying to get you back. That is Kṛṣṇa's attempt.

"Please, My dear boy, or My dear friend, My dear servant..." (Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 2 Chapter 1 text 3, Paris, June 12, 1974)

Real love or Bhakti is reciprocal, it is NEVER a "one way street" where surrender to Krsna takes away one's sense of self, free will, individuality and one's personal contributions of voluntary offerings to Krsna.

Each individual jiva-soul has their own independent personality (yet simultaneously dependent on Krsna), but also separate from Krsna's Personality, which means each jiva soul has their own sense of self which is their "unique individual identity" that THEY only individually each have.

These attributes are part and parcel of each individual marginal living entity (jiva soul) making each of them the unique "PERSON" they eternally are.

"Free will" in its full potential, is ONLY fully experienced in Vaikuntha and Goloka Vrindavana, which are the jiva souls original perpetual homes.

And having "free will" also means the jiva-souls have the choice to reject Krsna if they choose.

Srila Prabhupada - "Free will means that you can act wrongly. That is free will. Unless there is chance of doing wrong or right, there is no question of free will. Where is free will then?

If I act only one sided, that means I have no free will. Because we act sometimes wrongly, that means free will."

Hayagriva - "A man may know better but still act wrongly".

Srila Prabhupada -"Yes", but that is free will. He misuses his. Just like a thief, he knows that his stealing, it is bad, but still he does it. That is free will.

He cannot check his greediness, so in spite of his knowing that he is doing wrong thing—he will be punished, he knows; he has seen another thief, he was punished, he was put into prison— everything he knows, but still he steals.

Why?

Misuse of free will. Unless there is misuse of free will, there is no question of free will. (Excerpt from: Philosophy Discussions with Srila Prabhupada – Rene Descartes)

Vipina Purandara - “Why doesn’t Krsna protect me from thinking independently from Him?"

Srila Prabhupada - “That means you lose your independence. That is force, in Bengali it is said, ‘If you catch one girl or boy, ‘You love me, you love me, you love me.’” Is it love? “You love me, otherwise I will kill you!’ Is that love? (July 8, 1976 in Washington, D.C.)

Krsna does NOT want followers who deny others their right to choose for themselves on how they want to serve Krsna by offering their unique personal contributions, or even rejecting Krsna if they choose as Prabhupada explains above.

There is always a choice and that is why "free will" ALWAYS exists in Krsna's Kingdom.

Otherwise we are no better than dead emotionless stone or mindless drones.

The Spiritual worlds of Vaikuntha and Goloka Vrindavana are Krsna's PERSONAL Kingdoms that are perpetually based on loving exchanges, cooperation and voluntary offerings with and too Krsna and His devotees, it is NEVER a "one way" demanding forceful relationship.

Ultimately we are all Krsna's servant and very dear friend however, that does not mean we have to give up our "free will" and "individuality" to be Krsna's friend and servant.

So the conclusion is of course free will DOES exists in Goloka Vrindavana and Vaikuntha and free will is ALWAYS part and parcel of the constitutional make up of every marginal living entity (individual jiva soul).

In this way Krsna ALWAYS allows free will because if He didn't, then loving voluntary exchanges can NEVER exist.

So many ask why does Krsna (God) allow the jiva souls to have free will?

Srila Prabhupada has made it clear, it is only by Krsna’s sanction and approval the jiva souls have anything, and that includes having their free will too.

So how do we correctly understand this and why free will is a necessary part and parcel of the make up of every marginal living entities (jiva-souls)?

Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and cause of ALL causes meaning EVERYTHING comes from Him including the jiva soul's free-will.

The fact is, if Krsna denied the jiva-souls their free-will, then we are no better than dead stone or mindless drones who are always told what to do and how to do it.

If the jiva-souls never had their free-will to personally provide individual contributions or offerings, then this will only deny them to be the contributing PERSON they really are eternally.

Therefore without free will Krsna would be surrounded by mindless drones with no life, no independent personality, no sense of individual self and no life.

Free will means having a life of voluntary personal contributions

Without free will the jiva souls can NEVER experience loving exchanges or personal unique emotions because ultimately love is a "two way" exchange of personal feelings only experienced when there are voluntary contributions in a "two way" exchange that can only work when there is free will.

Therefore as explained above "free will" can NEVER be experienced in a "one way" forced dictatorial environment run by Krsna or anyone.

Such impersonal absolute control of an individual person is called slavery.

Forcing others to obey under the heading of surrender in a "one way" manipulative way, means there is no voluntary loving meaningful two-way exchanges going on between "two"

Therefore such an impersonal forced relationship is NOT out of love, it is selfishness and dangerous impersonalism.

Srila Prabhupada - "Krsna does not want to become a lover by force, ‘You love me, otherwise I shall kill you!’ That is not love. Love must be voluntary, good exchange of feeling. Then there is love. Not by force.” (July 8, 1976 in Washington, D.C.)

Therefore without free will, without being allowed to contribute personal offerings as a cow, as a calf, as flower, as plant, as water, as ground, field, or as father, as mother, as friend, as beloved, anything. It is inconceivable, yet a fact". (Srimad Bhagavatam 6.1.1-4 - Melbourne, May 20, 1975)