Re: Jiva controversy easily resolved

Dear Swamiji,

        Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna! Thank you for the corrections. I will take a permanent note of that. I will just change the second point to the abode of the Lord minus the marginal portion of the brahmajyothi.

        Regarding the other point, I copy pasted from the Krishna Kathamrta Bindu vol #187 as it is since it is published by disciples of Gour Govinda Swami. However after you made your point I checked up the verses for myself.

        In Jiva Gosvami's Bhakti Sandarbha, this story appears from the Visnudharmottara Purana. ".....In course of time, the female mouse also died and a wonderful divine airplane came and took her to the world of Vishnu. The cat also eventually met with death, and, ascending an excellent airplane surrounded by celestial nymphs, accompanied by hosts of Vidyadharas, and being praised with auspicious cries of victory, he also went to the world of Vishnu. After enjoying many pleasures there for hundreds of millions of years, that former cat took birth on the earth as a king named Sudharman...." 

        That is the original translation. This "material Vaikunta" appears in an Appendix in the bottom of the magazine page without any reference to any scriptural quote so I suspect that someone else has added this thing. To be sure,  I checked up the Srimad Bhagavatam by Prabhupada and I find this in 8.5.5

vaikuṇṭhaḥ kalpito yena

loko loka-namaskṛtaḥ

ramayā prārthyamānena

devyā tat-priya-kāmyayā

SYNONYMS

vaikuṇṭhaḥ � a Vaikuṇṭha planet; kalpitaḥ � was constructed; yena � by whom; lokaḥ � planet; loka-namaskṛtaḥ � worshiped by all people; ramayā � by Ramā, the goddess of fortune; prārthyamānena � being so requested; devyā � by the goddess; tat � her; priya-kāmyayā � just to please.

TRANSLATION

Just to please the goddess of fortune, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vaikuṇṭha, at her request, created another Vaikuṇṭha planet, which is worshiped by everyone.

PURPORT

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura remarks here that this Vaikuṇṭha planet, like Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, appears and is said to be born or created, but both Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Vaikuṇṭha eternally exist beyond the material universes, which are enveloped by eight kinds of coverings. As described in the Second Canto, Lord Brahmā saw Vaikuṇṭha before the creation of the universe. Vīrarāghava Ācārya mentions that this Vaikuṇṭha is within the universe. It is situated above the mountain known as Lokāloka. This planet is worshiped by everyone.

No mention that this Vaikunta is made of material elements. On the contrary it is compared to the appearance of the Srimad Bhagavatam, indicating it is eternal and spiritual and only manifested like the Lord's outpost in this world.

For this, only the editors of the Krishna Kathamrta Bindu can give a proper answer to where they got that term from.

About that is all I can verify. I am sorry for not having checked up my source. KK bindu has been a perfect magazine with all quotes of our acaryas so I had no second thoughts about putting it up.

My apologies,

Srinath

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