Additional Thoughts On Free Will
Fall-vädis are especially fond of arguing in favor of fall down from Vaikuëöha on the basis of misuse of one's free will. They insist that that the living entity has his minute independence and he can misuse it to come to the material world from Vaikuëöha. But this is not possible. We have given some refutations of this in an earlier section of this book. Here we discuss it again from yet another angle.
When a soul surrenders to the Lord and becomes perfect, a sädhana-siddha or a nitya-siddha eternally surrendered to the Lord, he does not have the independence to serve or leave the service. Once he has made the choice to serve, he does not have the same choice again. Fall-vädis cannot comprehend this simple fact, once you surrender your free will in favor of service you do not have it anymore. You cannot eat a cake and have it too. But this does not mean he loses his free will. It means he uses it properly. While on the ground you can choose the plane you want to board, but once you have boarded it then you have no choice. You used your free will to decide to board the plane, but once it is airborne then you are committed to stay on for the duration of the flight.
Similarly, those who ride on the plane of devotional service have no choice to jump down or in any other way leave Vaikuëöha. They are on for the duration, which in this case happens to be nitya, eternal. But they are not forced to do so, rather they never desire to do so as much as no sane man desires to jump from a plane in midflight after boarding it willingly. If someone argues that an insane man will want to jump that is fine, but there is no insanity in Vaikuëöha, except that everyone there is crazy after the Lotus feet of the Lord. In spite of that, Vaikuëöha is so nice that even if Krsna leaves they want to remain there (BB. 2.6.366):
tallokasya svabhävo'yaà kåñëa-sangaà vinäpi yat
bhavet tatraiva tiñöhäsä na cikérñä ca kasyacit
Indeed that is the nature of that planet (Goloka) that even without the association of Çré Kåñëa one desires to live there. No one even desires to go anywhere else.
Therefore being in Vaikuëöha is not like being captive in jail. The independence a devotee has is for the sake of service, not for giving up serving. Some people think controlling the senses means not engaging them or destroying them, but the followers of Lord Caitanya know that this is foolishness, false renunciation. One has to engage the senses properly in devotional service and that is the perfection of renunciation, called yukta-vairägya. One who has learned to control his senses in this way always uses his sense in devotional service. If he misuses his senses we do no consider that he has truly become the master of his senses.
Similarly surrender means choosing to use one's free will in the service of the Lord. One who attains perfection in this aspect becomes a nitya-siddha devotee and once that is done he cannot choose to misuse it, because he will not make such a choice. This is confirmed in a purport of Çréla Prabhupäda in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (6.1.34-36):
All the residents of Vaikuëöhaloka know perfectly well that their master is Näräyaëa, or Krsna, and that they are all His servants. They are all self-realized souls who are nitya-mukta, everlastingly liberated. Although they could conceivably declare themselves Näräyaëa or Visnu, they never do so; they always remain Krsna conscious and serve the Lord faithfully. Such is the atmosphere of Vaikuëöhaloka.
The living beings are given as much freedom as they deserve, and misuse of that freedom is the cause of suffering. The devotees of the Lord do not misuse their freedom, and therefore they are the good sons of the Lord. (Bhäg.1.8.28).
They never misuse their free will to call themselves Näräyaëa and they don't misuse it to jump from Vaikuëöha either. As with sense control, however, in Vaikuëöha the residents perfectly exhibit their free will by rendering all varieties of pleasing service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When it is said that the soul has independence it does not mean he is supremely independent, free to do anything. His free will is not absolute like the Lord's; it is minute. And his love for the Lord is not like material love, which one can give up when one finds a better object of love.
Moreover, even in the material world one does not give up the object of love unless he develops attachment somewhere else. The Lord is the supreme object of love, replete with six opulences. He is all-attractive and because Mäyä cannot even enter Vaikuëöha, there is nothing that can deviate the mind of a devotee to leave the Lord's service. And even if mäyä enters it cannot influence a devotee. Prabhupäda once told a devotee, "Just surrender to me and I will kick mäyä with my boots." He spoke like this while being in the kingdom of mäyä. In Vaikuëöha there is not even the need to speak so. This is the reason that mostly we find statements in the sastra such as "once going there", "having attained", because conditioned souls need this assurance, whereas nitya-muktas need no assurance. They have surrendered eternally. That is the implication of the statements which say, "one who has fixed his mind once," "surrendered once" and so on, such as (Bhäg.6.1.19):
sakån manaù kåñëa-padäravindayor
niveçitaà tad-guëa-rägi yair iha
na te yamaà päça-bhåtaç ca tad-bhaöän
svapne'pi paçyanti hi cérëa-niñkåtäù
Although not having fully realized Kåñëa, persons who have even once surrendered unto His lotus feet and who have become attracted to His name, form, qualities and pastimes are completely freed of all sinful reactions, for they have thus accepted the true method of atonement. Even in dreams, such surrendered souls do not see Yamaräja or his order carriers, who are equipped with ropes to bind the sinful.
So surrendering to the Lord means giving up one's independence and this surrender is eternal not for few hours or few days. Otherwise it will be cheating and it is not possible to cheat the Lord. Pure bhakti is free from all cheating propensities, dharmoprojjhita kaitavo 'tra (Bhäg.1.1.2), it is free from all other desires, anyäbhiläñita-çunyam and it is not covered by jïäna or karma, jïäna-karmädyanävåtam.
Because devotees, having once surrendered to the Lord never give up His service Lord Nåsimhadeva assured Prahläda Mahäräja (Bhäg.7.9.54):
préëanti hy atha mäà dhéräù sarva-bhävena sädhavaù
çreyas-kämä mahä-bhäga sarväsäm äçiñäà patià
My dear Prahläda, you are very fortunate. Please know from Me that those who are very wise and highly elevated try to please Me in all different modes of mellows, for I am the only person who can fulfill all the desires of everyone.
Närada Muni said that a devotee never desires to give up the Lord's feet because he is a taste seeker (1.5.19) smaran mukundäìghry upaghühanaà punar vihätum icchen na rasagraho yataù.
In Vaikuëöha the devotees have free will for rendering service and this is part of their svarüpa. That is why they cannot fall. If one has free will to fall then where is the surrender? Such a surrender is not surrender at all. Surrendering could be either voluntarily or by compulsion. Surrender by compulsion is not bhakti. Voluntary surrender is bhakti, but once the devotee has surrendered fully and attained uttama bhakti he can never fall down. It is widely accepted that an uttama-adhikäré cannot fall down. It is also widely accepted that up to the stage of bhäva one may fall from the path of devotional service. Once attaining prema-bhakti, however, one does not fall down. This generally refers to great devotees who are still present in the material world. If such a devotee is accepted as infallible, where is the logic in believing that the devotees situated in the abode of the Lord can fall down?
It is also argued that free will is in the svarüpa of the jéva so how can it be taken away? It cannot be taken away, but the object of the will is changed. In the material world, free will is used for enjoying independently of the Lord, but in the spiritual world it is used for giving pleasure to Kåñëa. That's why the jéva is called taöastha, because he can choose one or the other. But when the jéva is covered by mäyä, he has no choice but to serve maya. No one argues what has happened to his free will at that time.
Similarly, when the jéva becomes a nitya-siddha he is covered by prema and then he has no choice but to serve the Supreme Lord eternally. Out of His mercy, the Lord, arranges to rescue the fallen conditioned soul from ignorance; and when the jéva is in the internal potency, the Lord, out of His mercy, keeps the jéva eternally secure in His devotional service. If the Lord is merciful to the conditioned souls why would He not be merciful to His associates? Would the Lord distribute prasäda to the fallen souls but starve the residents in His abode? Then that would not be Vaikuëöha, the place of no anxiety.
Once the jéva fixes his will on Kåñëa's service then it is not changed for all eternity. The jéva himself does not will to change and Kåñëa is not cruel to change it. In the material world we are serving Çréla Prabhupäda, but one can change because of external influence or offense, but these do not exist in Vaikuëöha. Çréla Prabhupäda writes (Cc.Antya 3.251, purport).:
The verdict of the çästras is that a pure Vaiñëava, or devotee of the Lord, never thinks of enjoying the material world, which culminates in sex life. He never thinks himself an enjoyer, instead, he always wants to be enjoyed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The will to serve Kåñëa voluntarily is bhakti, which is eternal. Therefore this will to serve is also eternal. That's why it is part of the svarüpa of the devotee. The seed for this is given by the mercy of guru and Kåñëa, guru kåñëa prasäde päya bhakti latä béja. This seed is made mature by the process of sädhana-bhakti. Then the béja turns into a creeper of love. This creeper signifies the irrevocable will to please Kåñëa. Once a devotee has this he never falls. The nitya-siddha devotees in Vaikuëöha have this creeper eternally, therefore they never fall.
To say that sädhana-siddhas do not fall because of their past material experience is illogical. Anyone who is siddha, either sädhana or nitya, has the creeper of love in his heart as part of his eternal nature. And this means he has an irrevocable will to serve the Lord favorably. Therefore there is no question of fall down for him.
Does it mean that he has to serve out of force and thus he is like a slave? No, such ideas come from our materialistic experience and lack of spiritual insight. A pure devotee has unflinching love for Kåñëa. And in love he naturally uses his free will to serve and please his beloved Kåñëa. This is his svabhäva, his very nature; it is inseparable from him.