Topic: Jiva-tattva

I have some doubt about Bhaktivinoda Thakura's explanation of the jiva. I would be very grateful if you could please enlighten me on this subject.

We have to earn our position in Vaikuntha by a life or even lifetimes of devotion, purifying ourselves through volumes of service.

In this darsana Svarupa Damodara Maharaja and Narasingha Maharaja ask Srila Sridhara Maharaja to clarify how the jiva first comes to exist in the material world and how the jiva receives his first material body.

 

Although it is told as anadi (beginningless), still it has got adi (a beginning) in the spiritual record.

I have heard it said recently by some devotees that the origin of the jiva (regarding the soul's falling or not falling from the lila of Krsna) is inconceivable and that we cannot imagine or understand how or from where the soul has come into this material world. Can you please comment on this controversial topic?

I have read the book "Our Original Position" (OOP) published by the Iskcon GBC Press in which it is stated that the jivas (living entities) come to this material world after falling from grace in the spiritual world. Is this 'fall philosophy' correct according to sastra and previous acaryas?

Since time immemorial, man has inquired about the origin of the soul. In the thinking of many neophyte devotees the soul falls down from eternal pastimes with Krishna due to mundane envy. In this brief essay, Srila Sridhara Maharaja answers this most vital of all questions: "Who am I? Where have I come from?

Jaiva Dharma - Chapter 15. Translated from the original Bengali by leading Bengali devotee scholars; disciples of and under the direction of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. Published by Sri Gaudiya Math, Madras.

"The constitutional position of the jiva is that of an eternal servant of Krishna. The jiva belongs to the marginal potency of Krishna and as such the jiva is considered a manifestation simultaneously one and different from Krishna."

The necessity for this paper arises due to the continued misunderstanding of the actual siddhanta on jiva-tattva by a section of devotees. Many illogical statements have been made in defense of the theory that we fall from the Lord's eternal lila. We will show by analysis of rasa-tattva and logic that is is completely impossible and illogical for living entities to fall from the spiritual world. 

The purpose of this presentation is to provide devotees with pertinent quotes from sastra, Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and other prominent acaryas so that one may be more properly informed on the issue of the "Origin of the Jiva." These quotes are organized in a logical way in support of the eleven points that follow. It is not meant to be a complete presentation in itself, but rather to provoke further contemplation, investigation and penetrating thought.

In Our Original Position, the deviation of Kala Krsnadasa is stated in chapter twelve as factual and inescapable evidence that the jiva soul falls down from the eternal lila