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Acaryadeva here takes a clear stand in the discussion of the jiva's downfall where he states that the soul never looses his free will. He clarifies the paradox about no one falling from the spiritual sky and the falldown of Jaya and Vijaya.
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SB 3.16.27
brahmovaca
atha te munayo drstva
nayanananda-bhajanam
vaikutham tad-adhisthanam
vikukuntham ca svayam-prabham
TRANSLATION
Lord Brahma said: After seeing the Lord of Vaikunatha, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in the self-illuminated Vaikuntha planet, the sages left that transcendental abode.
„nayanananda“ literally means eye-bliss. Nayana means leader, and therefore also eye because the eye leads us. Krsna is here called vikuntham. Vi means away, apart, without. Vaikuntha is a place without anxiety because all our desires are fulfilled. Krsna is that what we desire when we have full knowledge. Anything we desire which is not Krsna or based on Krsna is a misunderstanding because Krsna IS our real desire. Whatever we really desire we get. Anything is a misunderstanding. We can’t make a final choice without knowing all the options. If we understood perfectly, we would desire Krsna.
Socrates made a similar point by saying that no one does something wrong knowingly. Someone may ask, then how did we get into the material world? It could be argued that we didn’t get proper knowledge about the spiritual world; therefore it is not our fault that we are here. Some people give this argument indirectly, if I was in the spiritual world, why would I have come here?
Srila Prabhupada is making the point that even in the spiritual world we have free will to come here, we are there eternally voluntarily. There was a heretical “leaf book” that claimed that the souls in the spiritual world loose their free will to return here.
Srila Prabhupada said that no one falls from Vaikuntha. At different places he said something different, and also in the Sanskrit this statement is not found. It can be considered a paradox.
Lord Caitanya made hermeneutical statements, how to understand a text. He explained all kinds of hermeneutical principles, e.g. about the principal and secondary meaning of a text. When the primary meaning is clear you cannot interpret. If the literal meaning is not clear (like in a paradoxical statement) then one can. A paradox is a superficial contradiction that forces us to think.
So if Srila Prabhupada says that the soul doesn’t fall and here it is explained how Jai and Vijaya had to leave Vaikuntha and came to the material world for some time then this is no contradiction but a paradox. The easiest way to resolve this paradox is to read the Sanskrit text. In a conversation between Yudisthira and Narada Muni, Yudisthira finds it unbelievable that devotees, dedicated to the service of the Lord be thrown out of the spiritual world by some outsiders. Narada Muni explains that
it was just a pastime because devotees who serve the Lord never fall down. If you chose not to be an inhabitant of the spiritual world then you have the choice to come down. All this is explained in the book “Our original position”. (oop)
Question in regards to nitya-siddha and nitya-baddha:
A: Words denoting absolute time periods whenever they refer to the material world are not to be taken literally. Krsna Himself says in SB that it is figurative and just means a very long time span. However, when Krsna speaks about object like the soul (Nityah sasvato 'yam, na hanyate hanyamane sarire) he uses the same word nitya, but in this case it is to be taken literally. When the acaryas say anadi-karma is just means it reaches back very long.
Krsna explains in BG that only matter is transformed, but the soul is always intact. In that sense we are ever-liberated. There are two kinds of things. Krsna says either things have a beginning and an end or they have no beginning and no end.
