Re: Is impersonal merging temporary or permanent

Respected Swamiji and all Vaisnavas,

           Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna! Jaya Guru parampara! Please accept my respectful obeisances!

   Hadai Nityananda Dasa prabhu and I had a very wonderful and very deep talk on this sometime back. I apologise for not having put it up sooner. But here it is. The explanation is lengthy and I request your patience to read as far as one can go.

PART 1

   It is commonly said that merging into brahman completely destroys one's existence and the jiva loses all love of Godhead forever by this. However permanently and forever here actually means 'virtually forever and permanently' because having gone beyond the material world to the marginal position of residing in the brahmajyothi, a jiva will again come back to the material world only after so long, time immemorial, that for all purposes we can assume the soul is gone 'forever' as we say when we talk about time frames beyond anyone's ability to comprehend. As a matter of fact, the mind is incapable of comprehending things beyond time as it itself is created within the time frame of the material world.

   However it is important to know that the Lord lies completely beyond all time and space. What is unlimited from our perspective is not limited for the Lord because the spiritual world is always in the 'eternal present' where all past, present and future and everything near and far are all there in Him at once. I can give a crude example. Take the set of numbers between 1 and 2. This [1,2] set is unlimited by its own measurement as we can count an infinity of numbers within this time. However compared to the set of all numbers in existence, it is very limited and a very tiny part. Similarly time and space of this material world are limited from the spiritual perspective. Which is why Prabhupada describes it as a cloud in a corner of the sky. How is it possible cannot be understood mentally.

   Similarly the falldown of the soul. Acaryas have described it as beginningless and also having a beginning when the soul desires to come from the marginal line, the brahmajyoti. How is that? Answer is that in material terms it is an eternity as this happens outside time and space and so we cannot trace a beginning in time however far into the past we look. But beyond time and space, it happens and since the brahmajyoti is not a permanent resting place, jivas come from there to the material world or go to the spiritual world. That's about all of it that can be expressed in words. Failure to accept it and try to resolve it using intellectual means has caused the controversy of the jiva falldown which I will not discuss further as it is merely distractive gossip for sadhakas.

   So in the same vein, even impersonal merging into brahman is truly not permanent in the spiritual plane in which the past, present and future are all there in one place. So our eternity in material bondage and an unlimited time of merging in Brahman is nothing more than an instant for the Lord and when we reach the spiritual world, we are eternal devotees there. And our spiritual life is also without beginning and end because the Lord and his devotees exist in the eternal present. All souls are eternally devotees always and so bhakti has no beginning or end. But right now it is covered by other things. And when the covering is lifted the bhakti becomes visible. As a matter of fact, in absolute terms, it is a misnomer to say that a soul becomes a devotee -- because the soul is always a devotee. Actually the devotion simply becomes revealed to oneself and to others. That's the whole process. Which is why we all stop seeking and realise that we are walking over the treasure that is always with us, right here, right now.

    Therefore, the jiva souls who attain sayujya with brahman or the Lord are never gone forever. They continue to exist as spiritual sparks, however they are unconscious with their consciousness merged in Brahman, as Prabhupada pointed out. This state is known as susputi and Srila Baladeva Vidyabhushana mentions this to be the fate of the impersonalists who lose their consciousness in Brahman. But this sleeping position is actually not permanent as it is against the nature of the jiva to be unconscious. The jiva souls will have to regain consciousness. So from the marginal line of the brahmajyothi, the jiva has a choice between the material and spiritual worlds. If the jiva souls do not cultivate devotion from the platform of impersonal brahman, they will again fall down to the material plane as brahmajyothi is not a resting place. This is confirmed by Srimad Bhagavatam 10.2.32

     ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas
tvayy asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ
āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraḿ padaḿ tataḥ
patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-ańghrayaḥ

     SB 10.2.32: [Someone may say that aside from devotees, who always seek shelter at the Lord's lotus feet, there are those who are not devotees but who have accepted different processes for attaining salvation. What happens to them? In answer to this question, Lord Brahmā and the other demigods said:] O lotus-eyed Lord, although nondevotees who accept severe austerities and penances to achieve the highest position may think themselves liberated, their intelligence is impure. They fall down from their position of imagined superiority because they have no regard for Your lotus feet.

     So even liberation in brahman is not permanent. And the Srimad Bhagavatam goes on to say that even in impersonal Brahman, there is residual material contamination as there is the risk of falling to the material world. The Lord always gives a second, third, millionth and unlimited chances to attain devotional service. The proof is that Gopa Kumara in Brihad Bhagavtamrta attained impersonal Brahman realisation, but he was able to progress and reach Goloka. Similarly the Kumaras and many others. As a matter of fact, all souls start from impersonal brahman which is the marginal position and attain the Lord eventually!! That is the astonishing fact.

     So in our perspective merging into brahman is permanent. But the Lord can make it temporary. But Lord Gauranga Krishna is fully omnipotent and he is beyond time and space. So he can make the unlimited limited, the limited unlimited and the permanent to be temporary. He can make the 'permanent' merging temporary by bringing the souls out of the merged condition and giving them another opportunity for devotional service. He does not doom the jiva forever. We make it last as long as we do not surrender our freedom to him and try to be God ourselves. So permanent and temporary are relative terms and how long a jiva remains merged is upto the jiva alone. So we cannot give a general rule as to when everyone will come back or when everyone will reach the Lord. But we have to rest assured with the fact that everyone will reach the Lord eventually. In spiritual terms, no jiva stays forever in the material world. Eventually everyone we know will become devotees and attain their respective spiritual positions. When they choose to do so is in their hands. But they will all be liberated (here liberation means attaining the goal of bhakti) and reach the spiritual world. Just as we cannot say when they fall down from the brahmajyothi or how long they stay in the impersonal efflugence, we cannot also say when they will attain the Lord. Everything that has a beginning must come to an end. So everyone will certainly become devotees because even the entanglement is not permanent. Spiritually it is temporary and just lasts for an infinitesimal amount of time which is practically zero for the Lord.

     Let us take the example of Mukunda in the pastimes of Lord Gauranga in the Chaitanya Bhagavata. Mukunda had been associating with the wrong company of materialistic and impersonalist Mayavadis and wherever  and in their midst he spoke various statements minimising the glory of the personality of Godhead and pure devotion. Lord Caitanya declared, "He who declares that there is something superior to devotional service actually beats me with a stick." The statements of the impersonalists are simply deadly weapons with which they hurt the tender soft form of the Lord. Lord Gaura also said, "In Kasi there lives an impersonalist named Prakasananda Sarasvati who continuously wounds me with sharp weapons by decrying my personality."
   
   So for these severe offenses, Mukunda was actually in a situation where he would be permanently denied the association of the Lord and his circle of devotees as happens to all the blasphemers. But however, the Lord showed his mercy and reduced it to 10 million years. A jubliant Mukunda was so ecstatic that he forgot everything else and all that mattered to him was that he would get back the Lord's association. Seeing this Lord Gaura was so happy that he immediately made the 10,000,000 years to be zero and immediately called for Mukunda to come and enjoy his association. So here he made the permanent not only temporary, but also zero and gave him instant mercy! But here's something even more interesting. The Lord then says, "Mukunda. You are my eternal devotee and you were never bewildered and you are always dear to me." So remember what I said earlier. From the point of the Lord, the beginningless bewilderment of the material world is actually zero and the soul is always a devotee eternally.

       So from nitya-baddha the jiva becomes nitya-siddha. On the absolute level, the jiva is always a devotee and his devotion is without beginning and end even though materially it may appear that the soul attains the spiritual world at some point. Sadhaka siddha is a term to show that the soul was in the material world for a while and had to be brought to the Lord by another devotee's mercy. But otherwise, the soul is an eternal devotee in the spiritual world.

     In the upcoming parts of the article I will reveal something that Hadai Prabhu revealed to me that surprised me as much as it may surprise many other sadhakas. Thank you for your patience having read upto such a length. I once more humbly request the reader to devote sometime to the rest of the article and also forgive my limitations for all my slip ups and many mistakes.

To be continued....

Daaso'smi,

Srinath

Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!

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