Recently I was accused of misrepresenting or distorting philosophical conclusions.

<You keep on saying that there is no time in the spiritual world. You are therewith contradicting Srila Sanatana Goswami who nicely explains the concept of spiritual time.>

I never said or wrote that there is NO TIME in Goloka Vrindavana. I only wrote that the time THERE is different from the time experience here.

“Srimad-Bhagavatam (2.9.10): In the personal abode of the Lord there is no predominance of the influence of time.”

<You say that the eternally perfect siddha deha for us jivas is “already there” in the spiritual world. This is not true. The spiritual body of the sadhaka has is eternal in the sense that it has a beginning but NO END. We are nitya baddha but will cease to be so in the future (we hope). Similarly, eternal forms of sadhana-siddhis do have a beginning- in aparakata lila- but no end.In Caitanya Caritamrita we find the following verse: 

At the time of initiation, when the devotee offers himself up to the Lord, then the Lord makes him equal to himself. He makes the devotee’s body spiritual like his own so that the devotee can engage in the service of his lotus feet [otherwise, how can he serve him?] 

So here we see that the spiritual body has beginning. It will be perfected in the prakat-lila and then it will enter the aprakat-lila.>

This verse quoted here has nothing to with the eternal siddha deha of the jiva.

Nowhere in the sastras we can find that the siddha deha is WITH BEGINNING and HAS NO END…this conception of eternality in regards to the siddha deha doesn´t exist.

vaikunthasya bhagavato jyotir-amsa-bhuta vaikuntha-loka-sobha-rupa ya ananta murtayas tatra vartante, tasam ekaya saha muktasyaikasya murtir bhagavata kriyata iti vaikuntasya murtir iva murtir yesham ity uktam ||
Priti- sandarbha 10

“In the spiritual world, the Supreme Lord has unlimited spiritual forms; they all are expansions of Himself illuminating that world. With each one of those forms, the Lord enjoys pastimes with a single individual liberated soul.”

Now, it is very important to check the verse in question very clearly.
Srila Jiva Goswami writes that Krishna will GIVE a liberated soul who reached perfection a body “similar” to His. Many think that He “creates that form”, but this is not the case.
The siddha-deha is an eternally existing form. It is never created and it is “of pure svarupa-sakti”. Srila Jiva Goswami uses his words very thoughtfully.
He clearly says: KRIYATE. “KRIYATE” can mean many things.
A nice devotee explained the verse beautifully:

The root kṛin Sanskrit can actually have any meaning, it does not mean just “create”. It is akin to the English “do”. One can express every activity with it. Kriyate in the passage does not mean that the spiritual body is created. The text itself says that mūrtayas tatra vartante, they are there eternally, tāsām (out of them) ekayā saha (with one) muktasya(of the liberated) ekasya (of the one) mūrtir (body) bhagavatā (by the Lord) kriyate (assign), i.e. the Lord awards one of the bodies that eternally reside in Vaikuṇṭha (in an inactive state) to the liberated one. vaikuṇṭasya mūrtir iva mūrtir yeṣām, the body that one is given is similar (iva) to that of Lord Vaikuṇṭha. Jīva Goswāmī wants to explain that one achieves bhagavat-tulyatvam at the stage of utkrānta-mukti (gone forth or out, gone over or beyond , passed , surpassed, trespassing , exceeding – Monier Williams) by quoting the Bhāgavata verse (3.15.14 vasanti yatra puruṣāḥ) there (utkrānta-mukti-daśāyāṁ tu teṣāṁ bhagavat-tulyatvam evāha). There is nothing like that that the spiritual body is created at some time. It is eternal. It is aprākṛta. The fact itself should make it clear that it can’t be created. “

So we can clearly see that this form is “already” there and Krishna “assigns” such a form to the jiva who reached perfection.

The siddha-deha one longs to attain is not a figment of imagination; it is one among the infinite siddha-rupas in the spiritual realm. In fact, beyond being expansions of bhagavan, the sakhi-gana with their various svabhavas are expansions of Sri Radha. As in the Chaitanya Caritamrita:

akara svabhava-bhede vraja-devi-gana |
kaya-vyuha-rupa tanra rasera karana ||
CaiCa 1.1.79

“The multitude of Vraja-gopis have various natures (svabhava). They are the forms of Her bodily expansions (kaya-vyuha-rupa) and Her instruments for creating rasa.”

The one desirous for service in the wake of the sakhis will certainly be granted an appropriate form for such service.

vraja-lokera kona bhava lana yei bhaje |
bhava-yogya deha pana krishna paya vraje ||
CaiCa 2.8.122

“Whoever accepts the bhava of the residents of Vraja, engaging in bhajana appropriate for that bhava, will receive a body suitable for it, attaining Sri Krishna in Vraja.”

In the Vaikuṇṭha planets all the residents are similar in form to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. They all engage in devotional service to the Lord without desires for sense gratification. (SB 3.15.14

My Paramgurudeva writes:

[quote]

The spiritualization of the devotional aspirant’s body

In the meantime, the body of a devotee (whether male or female) engaged in chanting the Holy Names and other devotional practices becomes progressively free from the material qualities. I am explaining this with evidence from the scriptures for the ultimate and greatest benefit of the devotional aspirants. One who is aware of the spiritual nature of the devotee’s apparently material body will keep free from offences and will thus protect himself on his path to spiritual achievement. Thinking a devotee’s body to be material is the cause of unlimited offence, with the result that one falls deeper into material consciousness and loses all hope of attaining pure devotional service. Narottama Das Thakur sings in his Prarthana, “An offence at the lotus feet of the Lord can be counteracted by chanting his Holy Names, but an offence at the feet of the devotee has no remedy.” Krishnadasa Kaviraja also says, “If the mad elephant offence to the Vaishnavas should chance into your garden, then your carefully nurtured seedling of devotion will be uprooted and all its leaves torn to shreds.”

In this Age of Quarrel, in which Caitanya Mahaprabhu himself has appeared, even the most sinful persons like drunkards, etc., in some birth attain purification and liberation, but one who is offensive to devotees will never have such fortune. The Caitanya-bhagavata says, “Lord Gaurasundara delivers everyone except for the blasphemer who is the most heinous sinner of all.” Blasphemy is specifically mentioned here, but it should be considered as an indicator of the six different types of offence to the devotees. “Even a drunkard will sooner or later attain the Lord’s mercy, but one who spends his time criticizing others is not destined for such good fortune. The blasphemer of the devotee will have to suffer the torment of a thousand hells over and over again.”

Here the following question arises: When a devotee attains prema and enters the eternal pastimes of the Lord then his body composed of the five elements “dies.” This is seen practically and is mentioned also in connection with the story of Narada. Still some knowledgeable Vaishnavas say that this death of the devotees is false, how is this possible? How can one deny the death of the material body.

The answer is that factually the devotee has no material body. As Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu himself says in the Caitanya-caritamrita:

A devotee’s body should never be thought of as material. It is transcendental and made of spiritual substance. At the time of initiation, when the devotee offers himself up to the Lord, then the Lord makes him equal to himself. He makes the devotee’s body spiritual like his own so that the devotee can engage in the service of his lotus feet [otherwise, how can he serve him?]

In the Brihad-Bhagavatamrita also, Mahesa says to Narada,

O Narada! I consider that wherever there are devotees that is Vaikuntha. Even if they are in the material world, it is not to be considered inferior to Vaikuntha. This is my own realization from direct experience and I don’t feel it necessary to offer proofs from scripture. My experience is sufficient evidence. Due to drinking the nectar of devotion to Krishna they have completely forgotten the material body and everything connected with it and thus that body becomes transformed into something other-worldly or spiritual, just as took place in the case of Dhruva Maharaja. It is just as with the drinking of certain potions—the body becomes transformed.

The transformation of the devotee’s body is a gradual process. In his commentary on the words “they gave up their bodies of material elements” in Bhagavata-purana (10.29.10), Visvanatha presents the following argument:

Other than a devotee surrendered to the Lord, no one, not the jnanin, nor the yogin, nor any other transcendentalist is actually completely free from the material qualities. This was stated by the Lord to Uddhava (BhP 11.25.26). One should understand this in the following way: the devotee’s body is considered to be nirguna because, on the order of his spiritual master, all of his senses are engaged in the transcendental service of the Lordhis ears in hearing about Krishna, his tongue in chanting the Lord’s names and glories, his mind in remembering Krishna, his entire body in prostrating himself in supplication to the Deity and his hands in various types of service. Thus, because all his senses are engaged in receiving transcendental materials connected with the Supreme Lord, they also become transcendental. On the other hand, as much as the senses receive non-spiritual data, they will be influenced by material qualities. As a result, from the beginning of the devotional process, the devotee’s body is partly material and partly spiritual. According to the indications of the Bhagavata verse (11.2.40) which compares advancement in devotional service to the satisfaction felt by a hungry man while eating, his gaining of strength and relief from the discomforts of hunger, one can understand that the process is progressive, for as much as one has eaten, that is the proportion to which he will feel these beneficial effects. Thus, as one progresses in spiritual life, the spiritualized portion of his body increases and the material portion is gradually reduced. When one reaches the stage of prema then his body is completely spiritualized and there is no mundane portion left. Thus the death of a devotee that is seen by all is to be known as nothing more than a kind of illusion and not at all real. The non-devotees consider that the devotee’s body must also die. This false doctrine is maintained by the Lord just to keep devotional service closed to atheistic and self-interested persons. An example of this is the so-called “Club Pastime” of the Lord in which he created the illusion of the demise of the Yadu dynasty. One should know that this too is non-factual. On some occasions, the Lord does not make such an illusory show but rather seeks to illustrate the glories of devotional service, as in the case of Dhruva. Dhruva went to Vaikuntha in the selfsame body, thus it is to be concluded that the apparent death of Narada was also an illusion created by the Lord.

The next question then is, what is to be gained by thinking that a devotee’s body is beyond the material qualities? And conversely, what is lost by thinking it to be material? Why do disease, etc., manifest in a devotee’s body if it is transcendental?

The response to these questions is as follows: By thinking a devotee’s body to be transcendental, one’s material existence comes to an end. To think it material results in increasing material entanglement and hellish suffering. Evidence is the Padma-purana verse beginning with vaishnave jati-buddhih. The Lord allows the appearance of death and diseases in a devotee’s body just to increase the materialists’ entanglement: it should be considered a test of faith. Caitanya Mahaprabhu said the very same thing in connection with the appearance of sores on Sanatana Gosvamin’s body: “The Lord Krishna made these pus-filled sores appear on Sanatana’s body just to test me. If I had not embraced him due to disgust at seeing them, I would have committed an offence and been punishable by the Lord.”

Anyone, whether male, female, boy or girl, brahmana or any other caste or nationality, immediately rises above the material qualities when he engages in the service of the Lord. For this reason, all devotees should be treated with the greatest affection and reverence; not doing so will result in hellish existence, even if one performs one’s devotional activities most perfectly. This is the conclusion of the devotional scriptures.

The Lord said, “If I hear the Holy Name coming from the lips of any person at all, I consider him to be worshipable, for he is far better than the rest of the people. Whoever utters the Holy Name even once is to be considered a Vaishnava and I offer him the greatest respect.”

From this statement of the Lord, it is evident that any person, whoever he may be, if he says the Lord’s name even once, is worshipable and the best among men. This shows the glory of the Holy Name and devotional practice more than anything else.

In the Caitanya-bhagavata, Vrindavana Dasa writes,

If someone does not worship the devotee but approaches the Lord with obeisances, the Lord does not forgive his offences. The Lord will deliver everyone except the rascal who blasphemes the devotees. 84,000 gods of death wait to punish the blasphemer again and again. The Lord says, “If someone speaks ill of my devotees, even if they chant my name that is like a desire-tree, that Name will be the cause of his demise.”

Thus the conclusion is that because the body of a devotee is not material, to blaspheme him is a greatly punishable offence. Jiva Gosvamin says in his comments on the verse etan nirvidya-mananam (BhP 2.1.11) in which the Holy Name is glorified as the best process of spiritual realization that even a great devotee if he commits offences to the Holy Name can be relegated to a hellish existence. Therefore one should engage in devotional life avoiding the ten offences to the Holy Name amongst which the six types of offences to the Vaishnavas are included.

[end of quote]

<Your Paramgurudeva writes that the siddha deha for the jiva is in Goloka Vrindavana in an inactive state. This is wrong. Nothing there is inactive, all is active and conscious.>

My Paramgurudeva wrote this for us FROM OUR LIMITED perspective to make us understand that actually WE must “activate” the spiritual bhava in our consciousness so that we can BE that siddha deha. The siddha deha is a body made of bhava.

In our case, the siddha deha is an expansion of Srimati Radharani.

“The multitude of Vraja-gopis have various natures (svabhava). They are the forms of Her bodily expansions (kaya-vyuha-rupa) and Her instruments for creating rasa.”

<It is said that the jiva is part and parcel of Krishna. So, we are one with him and at the same time different from Him. We have all the qualities of Krishna, only in smaller amounts. But you say that the sat-cit-ananda nature of the jiva is entirely different. This is not what is written in the sastras.>

First of all, we do not have all the qualities of Krishna, but in smaller amounts. Not even Narayana has all the qualities of Krishna.

We are one with Krishna AND different from Him in both, quantity AND quality.

We are His parts and parcels and we are one with Krishna in terms of our eternal spiritual nature, but we are different from Him in terms of WHAT KIND of SPIRITUAL NATURE.

It would be very helpful to show us anywhere in the shastras where it is written that the jiva is “sat-cit-ananda”, in the literal meaning.

Often a prominent Vaishnava is being quoted on this point when trying to refer to any shastras. But actually, the writings of this Vaishnava are not considered to be shastras by many traditional parivars, meaning like being shastra as the writings of the Goswamis, Sripad Vishvanatha Cakravartipad, Srila Narottama das Thakur…

The jiva is eternal (sat) like Krishna too. But as far as knowledge/awareness (cit) is concerned, the jiva´s awareness and knowledge differs quite substantially from the awareness/knowledge of Krishna.
We as jivas are aware of our soul, of our bodies and of our surroundings. It is not that we are actually FULL OF KNOWLEDGE and somehow we “forgot” this knowledge. Our ignorance is beginningless (anadi) and we have never been FULL OF knowledge.

If we are full of knowledge and bliss, then why do we never feel it? Why are we incessantly hankering for knowledge and bliss?
In fact, all our actions are ultimately aimed at attaining these two goals.
Just as darkness can never cover light, ignorance can never shroud knowledge.
Darkness is nothing but absence of light. It is not a positive entity. To cover something, the covering agent must have positive existence.
When Krsna says that ignorance covers knowledge (Gita 5.15), He means ignorance covers the discriminating faculty. In other words, a person loses the ability to make proper decisions and is thus bewildered. Krsna Himself recommends approaching a teacher and acquiring knowledge from him (Gita 4.34).

If knowledge were inside the Self, He would have recommended to approach a teacher to get the covering of inherent knowledge removed. Indeed He would not even have recommended going to a teacher but to a peeler, who can peel away ignorance. Krishna specifically uses the words, “The teachers will impart knowledge to you.”
In the same vein a few verses later (Gita 4.39), Krishna says that a man of faith who attains knowledge (jnana) become peaceful. If that knowledge were already there, there was no need to attain it in the first place.

In verse 7.2. again, Krishna declares to Arjuna that He will now impart unto him this knowledge.

If I were full of bliss and knowledge, then how could I lose sight of it even if I were covered by ignorance? Ignorance can only cover, but not take away, that knowledge. Even though there may be ignorance all around me, I would still be full of knowledge and bliss. But such is not our experience.

Often the soul is compared to a drop of the ocean and Krishna being the ocean.
A drop of the ocean does not have all the qualities of the ocean. The ocean has waves, a drop does not. The ocean is full of aquatics, but not the drop. One can sail on the ocean, not on a drop.

If I have forgotten about my necklace around my neck and someone points it out to me, I immediately know it and give up my search. But no matter how many times someone tells me that I am full of knowledge and bliss, I realize no bliss and remain as ignorant or knowledgeable as I was before. Why? Because I do not have knowledge and bliss inherent in me.

Such examples neither prove nor disprove anything. Examples only assist us in comprehending a known conclusion. If I am a pauper, I remain a pauper, even though someone may repeatedly tell me that I am a prince.

So if we want to understand the nature of the jiva, we need to consult Srila Jiva Goswami.

In Paramatma Sandarbha (28), Sri Jiva Gosvami explicitly says that the self is devoid of knowledge, although conscious by nature, and it lacks bliss although free of any material misery.
In other words, it has the potential (svarupa yogyata) to get knowledge and bliss but not yet the functionality (phalopadhayi yogyata). To give an example, a child has the potential to be an athlete or a graduate, but that potential is not realized unless he practices on the track or goes to college and studies.

Then, happiness or bliss (ananda): Like Sripad Jiva Goswami said, our happiness is VERY minute. We can´t compare the happiness “within the tatastha-sakti” with the happiness “within Krishna inner energy (svarupa-sakti), which is called hladini-sakti.

Our happiness as jivas, who don´t practice bhakti, is defined by the absence of misery.
Many philosophers say that this is the goal of life: to avoid misery.

But actually, this is THE NATURAL STATE of the jiva. It is not influenced by maya. We only think that we are influenced because we identify with the body, made of material nature.

Ananda here means lack of misery and not the ananda which is the outcome or the svarupa of bhakti, bhakti being the essence of the samvit and hladini potency.

<You claim that bhakti is not inherent in the jiva. This is very wrong. Please read this verse from the Caitanya Caritamrita as being the evidence that bhakti, love, is eternally in the heart of the jivas: 

nitya-siddha krsna-prema sadhya kabhu naya
sravavadi-suddha-citte karaye udaya

“Pure love for Krsna is eternally established in the hearts of living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting, the living entity naturally awakens.”
– (CC. M. 22.107)>

Unfortunately the translation of this verse is not correct.
Some words have been added in the translation, which are not there.
The words “is eternally established in the heart” is not found in this verse.
And also “udaya” doesn´t mean “awake”, it means “arise”. So PREMA is not THERE, it is not dormant and not to be “awoken”.
It arises WHEN THE HEART IS PURIFIED by the angas of bhakti.
The correct translation is:

“Krishna prema is eternal and perfect. It is never to be “attained” (by endeavours).
Prema arises in the citta (heart/consciousness) which has been purified by devotional activities (hearing, chanting,..).”

So pure love is nothing which is “manufactured”.

It “arises”. That means it is not dormant in the heart of the jiva.
Consequently, bhakti is not inherent in the svarupa of the jiva.
Bhakti is a most merciful gift which is given “from the outside”…from someone who already has received bhakti.

To properly understand the verse from above, we need to focus on this one:

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru krsna prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

“By the causeless mercy of guru and Krsna, the devotee can receive the seed of bhakti by the mercy of Gurudeva.”

Here we see that the jiva RECEIVES the seed of bhakti.
Now, this “BHAKTI”-energy is a very mysterious energy.
It is a combination of two energies of Krishna.
“Bhakti” is “made of” samvit-sakti (knowledge/realization) and hladini-sakti (bliss). Ultimately BHAKTI rests in the heart of the personification of Krishna´s innermost energy, Srimati Radharani.
Both of this energies belong to Krishna´s INNER POTENCY.
The jiva belongs to the marginal energy (tatastha-sakti), so by definition, BHAKTI can not be “already” in the heart of the spiritual soul.

BUT: The spiritual soul has the “potency” to love. We can love through our false ego and we can love through our real ego, the drop of spiritual consciousness.

When this spiritual drop of consciousness (the spiritual soul) comes into contact with the BHAKTI-energy, the soul will be on the path to realize where it really belongs to.

BHAKTI can only be received from someone who has already received BHAKTI. It is said that BHAKTI flows down from the spiritual world (Krishna´s inner energy) to the material realm through the riverbed of an unbroken Guru-parampara.

We find the following verse in the Madhurya Kadambini about the nature of BHAKTI as being fully independent of anything:

tasya bhagavata iva tad rupaya bhakter api svaprakasatasiddhyartham eva hetutvanapekshata. tathahi ‘yato bhaktir adhokshaje ahaitukyapratihata’ ityadau hetum vinaivavirbhavatiti tatrarthah. tathaiva ‘yadricchaya mat kathadau’ ‘mad bhaktim ca yadricchaya’ ‘yadricchayaivopacita’ ityadavapi yadricchayetyasya svacchandenetyarthah. yadriccha svairitetyabhidhanat

TRANSLATION: The self-manifesting eternal energy of the Lord, bhakti, being nondifferent from the Lord‚ is not dependent on any other cause. Srimad-Bhagavata (1.2.6) describes the independent appearance of bhakti, “Devotional service to Lord Adhokshaja, Who is beyond the senses of all human beings, is the best of all religions because such devotion is causeless and uninterrupted by obstacles.” Similarly, the words of the Lord, “by chance if one attains faith in hearing My glories,” “by chance if one attains bhakti,” “by chance if bhakti manifests” refer to the Lord’s independent will. The word yadriccha means independent will. The dictionary also mentions yadriccha as spontaneous or self-will.

So we can only nicely understand the verse ‘nitya-siddha krsna-prema sadhya kabhu naya
sravavadi-suddha-citte karaye udaya’ when we understand ‘brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva guru krsna prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija’.

“Wandering throughout the universe, some fortunate soul receives the seed of devotion, by the grace of Guru or Kṛṣṇa.”

Every word is significant here– kon means “some”, not that everyone gets it. pāy means ‘he/she gets’, not that it’s intrinsic – it’s coming from outside.prasāda means that it isn’t deserved, but is causeless grace. One cannot work in advance to attain it.