Is returning back home back to Godhead permanent?

Syamasundara - "Can we predict that returning back home back to Godhead will be permanent? Can we predict that? Just like many prisoners leave the prison, however, some do come back?''

Srila Prabhupada - "No, there is no permanent effect because we have got little independence. There is nothing permanent because you can misuse your independence at any time."

Syamasundara - "And some come back?"

Srila Prabhupada - "Yes, otherwise there is no meaning of independence. Independence means you can do this; you can do that. "All right. Whatever you like."

Devotee - "Then he is so many times falling down, again and again, so will he eventually permanently come back?"

Srila Prabhupada - "He has got independence; therefore, there is always the possibility he can misuse his independence and fall again if he wants. That's why when a man is released from the prison house, that does not mean permanently because he can come back again, the general law is not to come back, but if he likes, he can come back, otherwise what is the meaning of independence and free will? Just like one becomes free from the prison house, naturally, he should not go there again." (Discussions with Syamasundara > Henri Bergson)

Srila Prabhupada explained to us that yes, Krsna promises the jiva-soul will never again fall to the material world however, we must ALSO agree with Krsna to give Krsna's promise meaning - there is always a choice.

Otherwise what is the point of having free will? 

Free will means one can "choose" what they want to do, even being with Krsna or rejecting Him.

Remember, maya or the material energy cannot exist in the Vaikuntha planets or Goloka Vrindavana, so one NEVER falls down because of maya or some material influence.

However, what DOES eternally exists in the spiritual world is free will and it is free will that is the cause of fall down.

Acyutananda – "But in the Bhagavad Gita it says, "Once coming to the spiritual world, he never returns to the material creation. He can return?"

Srila Prabhupada – "If he likes he can return, that is voluntary."

Guru-kripa – "How is it that one can reject Krsna?"

Srila Prabhupada – "You have got little independence, you can violate. Because you are part and parcel of God. God has got full independence, but you have got independence too, proportionately, because you are part and parcel, so if he likes, he can return. That independence has to be accepted. We can misuse that. Krsna-bahirmukha haïä bhoga väïchä kare. That misuse is the cause of our falldown." (Conversation, Mayapur, Feb 19, 1976)

Srila Prabhupada - "So, even in the Vaikuntha, if I desire that ‘Why shall I serve Krsna? Why not become Krsna?’ I immediately fall down, that is natural. A servant is serving the master, but sometimes he may think that, "If I could become the master." They are thinking like that; they are trying to become God. That is delusion. You cannot become God. That is not possible. But he’s wrongly thinking he can."

Vipina Purandara - "Why doesn’t Krsna protect us from that desire?"

Srila Prabhupada - "He is protecting you. He says, "You rascal, don’t desire an independent existence without Me, surrender unto Me." But you are rascal; you do not do this."

Vipina Purandara - "Why doesn’t Krsna save me from thinking like that?"

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? So Krsna does not want to become a lover like that, on 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, Washington, D.C. USA)

Srila Prabhupada told us in his room in 1972 that over 90% of jiva-souls never CHOOSE to fall down but less than 10% do choose to leave a Vaikuntha planet or Goloka-Vrindavana.

Only the marginal living entities (jiva-souls) can fall down and that is why they are called marginal - sometimes in the spiritual world and sometimes covered in the material world. 

Free will is what causes fall down and NOT maya and material energy because there is no maya or material energy on the Vaikuntha planets and Goloka Vrindavana but there is free will which eternal exists there.

Srila Prabhupada further explains-

Srila Prabhupada - "The next answer about the living entities falling down to the material world, they are NOT from the impersonal brahman. Existence in the impersonal brahman is also considered  fallen, within the category of non-Krsna consciousness. Those who are in the brahman effulgence they are also in the fallen condition, so there is no question of falling down from a fallen condition. When fall takes place, it means falling down from the non-fallen condition. The non-fallen condition is Krsna consciousness. So long as one can maintain pure Krsna consciousness, he does not fall down. As soon as he becomes out of Krsna consciousness, immediately he falls down." (Letter to Revatinandana, Los Angeles 13 June, 1970)

Devotee – "When we are in the spiritual sky and serving Krsna, we have a perfect relationship with Krsna, what causes us to fall down to the material world, because we’re already serving Krsna?"

Srila Prabhupada – "Because you desire to fall down. Here it is explained that, "don’t fall down."

Devotee – "Srila Prabhupada, I can’t understand why we should have an impure desire when we are already serving Krsna."

Srila Prabhupada – "Because you have got little freedom, you have free will. Why one is not coming here and going to the liquor shop? It is his desire."

Devotee – "In the Srimad-Bhagavatam it says that Krsna did not want us to come to this material world. If Krsna did not want us to come, then why are we here?"

Srila Prabhupada – "Yes, you forced Krsna to allow you to come, just like sometimes a child forces his father. Father says, "My dear son, do not do this. Do not go there, but he insists, "Oh, I must go. I must go. All right, you go at your risk and suffer. What can be done?" So because you are Son of God you have got independence, full independence, therefore you have acquired the quality of your father, so God does not interfere with your independence, your free will. If you persist that "I must go and enjoy independently," God says, "All right, you can go." This is the position. You have to take sanction. That is a fact. But when you persist, God sanctions. And you come and enjoy." (Melb, Australia June 25, 1974)

Paramahamsa - "But ultimately if we come to Krsna, there’s no return?"

Srila Prabhupada - "There is return, that is voluntary, return is there."

Paramahamsa - "If we want."

Srila Prabhupada - "Yes."

Paramahamsa - "So we can come to the spiritual world and return?"

Srila Prabhupada - "Yes."

Paramahamsa -"Fall down?"

Srila Prabhupada - "Yes, as soon as we try, "Oh, this material world is very nice, yes, Krsna says, yes, you go and enjoy the 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 sometimes go away, again come back. It is free will. 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."

Paramahamsa - "So our desire to enjoy, we achieve these material bodies; and our desire to achieve Krsna brings us to our natural position."

Srila Prabhupada - ''Yes." (Morning Walk Cheviot Golf Course, May 13, 1973, LA)

Returning home back to Godhead is not necessarily permanent Prabhupada explains, that choice to stay or go is also up to the jiva-souls too. 

The jiva-souls also have a say regardless of Krsna's promise, that when they return back home to Godhead, that they never again fall to the material world, no, they can if they choose to again fall down.

Therefore, it is NOT just a "one-way decision" made by only Krsna, no, the decision are also made by the individual each jiva-souls on where they choose to live otherwise what is the point of having free will?

Therefore we are responsible for our choices and actions and in the material creation free will almost does not exist because one is binded by their own reactions to their pious and impious deeds (karma)

Srila Prabhupada – ''Regarding your questions about how and from where did the conditioned souls fall, your first question if someone has a relationship with Lord Krsna on Krsnaloka, does he ever fall down? The souls are endowed with minute independence as part of their nature and this minute independence may be utilized rightly or wrongly at anytime, so there is always a chance of falling down by misuse of one’s independence." (Letter to Jagadisa dasa, 4/25/1970)

Srila Prabhupada – Regarding your several questions, where are all the spirit souls coming from? These spirit souls and all spirit souls are coming from Vaikuntha, but in these material worlds they are taking various grades of bodies according to their material activities. There is no new soul, new and old are due to this material body, but the soul is never born and never dies, so if there is no birth, how there can be new souls?" (Letter to Jagadisa dasa, 7/9/1970)

Srila Prabhupada - "Regarding your questions concerning the spirit souls falling into Maya’s influence, it is not that those who have developed a passive relationship with Krsna are more likely to fall into nescient activities. Usually anyone who has developed his relationship with Krsna does not fall down in any circumstance, but because the independence is always there, the soul may fall down from any position or any relationship by misusing his independence." (Letter to Jagadisa dasa, 02/27/1970)

Srila Prabhupada - "The relationship with Krsna is never lost, it is simply forgotten by the influence of maya, so it maybe regained or revived by the process of hearing the Holy Name of Krsna and then the devotee engages himself in the service of the Lord which is his original or constitutional position. The relationship of the living entity with Krsna is eternal as both Krsna and the living entity are eternal; the process is one of revival only, nothing new.'' (Letter to Jagadisa dasa, 02/27/1970)

Devotee – "In Srimad Bhagavatam, it says that Krsna did not want us to come to this material world. If Krsna did not want us to come, why are we here?" Why doesn’t He save me from thinking like that?"

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? So Krsna does not want to become a lover like that, on 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.)

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, You love me, otherwise I shall kill you! That is not love it is exploitation." (Washington DC July 8, 1976)

Real love, bhakti or service is always reciprocal, as said above, it is never a one-sided affair where surrender to Krsna takes away your sense of self, individuality and the ability to voluntarily provide personal contributions and have independent choices.

This is important to understand because each individual jiva-soul has their own independent personality, sense of individual existence, and a unique personality and character separate from Krsna's Personality, that are all the make up of each individual marginal living entity (jiva-soul), make them the "person" they are eternally.

In the spiritual world, all decisions are a "two-way" exchange various feelings, that allows the jiva-souls one rejects one chooses to Krsna. It is never a one-way 

Srila Prabhupada - "Because you are Son of God you have got independence, full independence, therefore you have acquired the quality of your father. "So God does not interfere with your independence." (Conversation Melb, Australia June 25, 1974)

Devotee - "Srila Prabhupada why did Krsna give us free will if He knew we would miss use it?"

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." (Aug 5, 1976, New Mayapur France)

Why it that more than 90% of marginal living entities (jiva-souls) never fall down from the Vaikuntha planets and Krsna's central Abode of Goloka-Vrindavana?

Krsna's love for the jiva-souls is more powerful than the jiva-soul's love for Kṛṣṇa. In fact, it is Krsna's love that overwhelmes the jiva-souls and greatly influence the jiva-soul's free-will that keeps most of them (over 90%) in the spiritual world. However, less than 10% do choose to fall down Prabhupada explains.

Dr. John Mize – "Did all the souls that were in the spiritual sky fall out of the spiritual sky at once or at different times, or are there any souls that are always good, they’re not foolish, they don’t fall down?"

Srila Prabhupada – "No, there are… Majority, 90%, they are always good, they never fall down."

Dr. John Mize – "So we’re among the 10%"

Srila Prabhupada – "Yes, or less than that. In the material, whole material world all the living entities they are… Just like in the prison house, there is some population, but they are not majority. The majority of the population, they are outside the prison house. Similarly, majority of living being, part and parcel of God, they are in the spiritual world. Only a few fall down."

Dr. John Mize – "Are more souls falling all the time?"

Srila Prabhupada – "Not all the time. But there is the tendency of fall down, not for all, but because there is independence… Everyone is not liking to misuse the independence. The same example: Just like a government constructing a city and constructs also prison house because the government knows that somebody will be criminal. So their shelter must be also constructed. It is very easy to understand. Not that cent percent population will be criminal, but government knows that some of them will be. Otherwise why they construct prison house also? One may say, “Where is the criminal? You are constructing…” Government knows, there will be criminal. So if the ordinary government can know, why God cannot know? Because there is tendency."

Dr. John Mize – "From where does that tendency come?"

Srila Prabhupada – "Tendency means the independence. So everyone can know that independence means one can use it properly, one can misuse it. That is independence. If you make it one way only, that you cannot become fall down, that is not independence. That is force. Therefore Krsna says,yathecchasi tathä kuru. “Now you do whatever you like." (BG As It Is. Lecture, Mayapur, June 20, 1973)

Just like Srila Prabhupad never fell down in the material world even though he had many opportunities to, similarly one who's bound by a strong knot of Love will not fall down.

This is why Krsna says that His devotees, who are bound by Him in Love, never fall down to the material world. Of course the element of free will is still there and some (less then 10%) can fall down due to free will at anytime.

Although those who have maintained their higher taste in service to Krsna, will always remain in their position, not consciously out of fear, but by their absorption in their loving exchanges with Krsna (seva) by "voluntarily" always being surrendered to the spell of yogamaya. And what is yogamaya?

Srila Prabhupada - "Regarding your first question, "Are great sages put under yogamaya or maya? Also are all the eternally liberated souls under yogamaya?" 

1 - Yogamaya means the mercy of the Supreme Lord which connects a devotee in the transcendental loving service of the Lord.

2 - Mahamaya means the external potency of the Lord which puts a conditioned soul into illusion that he will be happy by material adjustment. 

So great sages who are impersonalists are also under the spell of mahamaya, because a conditioned soul in the material world wants to improve his material position as exalted as possible, and the concept of becoming one with the Supreme Lord is the greatest illusion for them. 

Because it is a fact that nobody can be equal or greater than the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and as such, anyone desiring to become one with the Supreme means that he is still in the trap of maya. 

On the other hand, a humble devotee who may not be a great sage, but simply by his implicit acceptance of the Lotus Feet of the Lord as the goal of his life means that he is under the protection of yogamaya." (Letter to Aniruddha - Los Angeles 14 Nov, 1968)

Devotee - "In the material world, we are bound by māyā, mahā-māyā. In the spiritual world, is there another relationship of yogamāyā?"

Srila Prabhupāda - "Yogamāyā."

Devotee - "Could you explain a little bit about that?"

Srila Prabhupāda - "Yogamāyā means... Here (in the material world), this is also Kṛṣṇa's exhibition of māyā, but it is temporary. But in the spiritual world there is also an exhibition of Kṛṣṇa's māyā, but it is permanent. 

Here (the material world) is a perverted reflection, we say. Just like shadow, shadow, the shadow of the tree in the water—everything is perverted, opposite. 

So that shadow is not the substance. The substance is there. On the bank of the river, that is really. Similarly the spiritual world is there also, everything is there. There are trees, there are fruits, there are flowers, there are men—everything is there, birds, beasts, everything. But they are all real. 

Here, (the material world) bahu-rūpa. Bahu-rūpa means, which it is not reality. That, this bahu-rūpa is also reflection, but it is not real. That is the difference. Ivābhāti. Therefore it is called ivābhāti: "It appears like that." Actually it is not." (Lecture on SB 2.9.2 - Melb, Australia April 4, 1972)

Srila Prabhupada - "There are many different types of yoga system, and all the yoga systems are discussed in the Bhagavad-gītā, haṭha-yoga, karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, rāja-yoga, so many yoga systems. 

But the real yoga system, the first-class yoga system, is to revive your connection with Kṛṣṇa. That is first class. 

Here it is also said, yoga ādhyātmikaḥ puṁsām. Ādhyātmika. We are living entities, soul. We are now... We are disconnected, but we have forgotten. Disconnection cannot be. That is not possible. But it is covered. Nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yogamāyā-samāvṛtaḥ (BG 7.25). 

There is yoga and there is a yogamāyā. Yogamāyā means forgetfulness. So Kapiladeva... Kapiladeva is Bhagavān. He is advising, Bhagavān, that "This is first-class yoga." Ādhyātmikaḥ. Ādhyātmikaḥ, about the soul." (Lecture SB, Canto 3.25.13 - Bombay, Nov 13, 1974)

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa - "He wants to know how we may recognize yogamāyā, how we may know."

Srila Prabhupāda - "Yogamāyā? Yogamāyā means that which connects you. Yoga means connection. 

When you are being gradually advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is the action of yogamāyā. And when you are gradually forgetting Kṛṣṇa, that is the action of mahāmāyā. Māyā is acting upon you. 

The one is dragging you, and one is pushing you opposite way. Yogamāyā. 

So, just like the example, that you are always under the laws of government. You cannot deny. If you say, "I don't agree to abide by the laws of government," that is not possible. 

But when you are a criminal, you are under the police laws, and when you are gentleman, you are under the civil laws. 

The laws are there. In any situation, you have to obey the laws of government. If you remain as a civilized citizen, then you are always protected by the civil law. 

But as soon as you are against the state, the criminal law will act upon you. So the criminal activities of law is mahāmāyā, threefold miseries, always. 

Always putting in some sort of misery. And the civil department of Kṛṣṇa, ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam. You simply go on increasing the, I mean to say, depth of the ocean of joy. 

Ānandambudhi-vardhanam. That is the difference, yogamāyā and mahāmāyā. 

Yogamāyā is... Yogamāyā, the original yogamāyā, is Kṛṣṇa's internal potency. That is Rādhārāṇī." (Lecture - Seattle, Oct 18, 1968)*