Question:

“The siddha deha is eternal from the time it is given to us in the beginning of our bhauma lila. How can the siddha deha then be existing since eternity?”

Answer (Tarun Govinda das):

That the siddha deha has a “beginning, but no end” is not mentioned in any shastra.
It may seem to be like that from our limited and linear time conception.

The siddha deha is an eternal spiritual form. It has no beginning, it has no end.
“Siddha” means perfect, eternally so.

It is not “eternal” from a certain “time event” onwards. It exists eternally.

In Raga Vartma Vartma Chandrika, Srila Vishvanatha Cakravartipada describes how the sadhaka attains the siddha deha and how he takes birth in prakat-lila.

This birth in prakat-lila is a divine arrangement of Yogamaya.

It may be the “beginning” of the sadhaka´s experience of being the siddha deha after he gave up his material body, but it is most certainly NOT the beginning/creation of the eternal spiritual body.

Raga Vartma Chandrika, 2.7:

“After the sadhaka-body perishes, that loving devotee, who has eagerly desired direct devotional service for a long time, will once, by the Lord’s grace, receive the gift of the desired service and the audience of the Lord and His eternal associates, even though he has not yet attained the manifestations of prema like sneha and so, just as the Lord once bestowed His Personal audience to Narada Muni in his previous birth (see Srimad Bhagavata Canto One, Chapter Six). He will give the sadhaka a transcendental gopika-body.

Yogamaya will make that body take birth from a gopika-body in the manifest pastimes, when Sri Krishna descends to earth with His eternal associates. There will be not even the slightest delay in that, because the prakata lila goes on without interruption.

The liberated devotee will take birth in that material universe where Krishna plays His manifest Vrindavana-lila at the time. Sri Krishna and His associates always appear when the loving practising devotee leaves His body. Therefore, O greatly eager anuragi devotees! Do not fear! Be at ease! Everything is auspicious for You!”

“Yogamaya will make THAT body take birth” – here we have the divine arrangement. The birth in prakat-lila is not the “creation of the siddha deha”. By Yogamaya, the siddha deha is transferred into a womb of a gopi. A spiritual body has no beginning.

Also, we can read here that Sri Krishna is giving the perfected jiva a glimpse into the eternal reality of his siddha deha (not a spiritual embryo) and then Yogamaya transfers that siddha deha into the womb of a gopi.

tvaṁ bhakti-yoga-paribhāvita-hṛt-saroja āsse śrutekṣita-patho nanu nātha puṁsām yad-yad-dhiyā ta urugāya vibhāvayanti tat-tad-vapuḥ praṇayase sad-anugrahāya (Srimad Bhagavatam 3.9.11)

“O Lord! You, who are approached by being heard about, seen and directly served, enter and remain in the lotus of your devotee’s hearts infused with bhakti-yoga. Much praised Lord! By your mercy, you bestow to them spiritual bodies appropriate to the mood they cultivate during sādhana.”

The siddha deha exists already BEFORE we take birth in prakat-lila. Eternal means eternal.

My Gurudeva explains:

“Previously it has been said that the sadhana siddhas take birth from the wombs of gopis just as the nitya-siddha krishna-priyas do during Krishna’s manifest pastimes, and that in such bodies they attain sneha, mana and all the other stages leading up to maha-bhava, on the strength of their association with the nitya siddhas. In a sadhaka deha it is not possible to practise the higher stages of prema like sneha and mana, and without the advent of mahabhava the personal service of Sri Krishna in the mood of a gopi is not possible.

Here one may ask: the raganuga bhajana of those who practice sakhi or manjari bhava is performed by meditating on one’s siddha svarupa (revealed to us by Sri Gurudeva) and by establishing one’s self-identification with it.

When prema is attained the sadhaka has established a full self-identification as such and, forgetting his sadhaka body, he perceives his siddha svarupa day and night.

Why is there any further need then for taking birth from the womb of a gopi, after already attaining prema? They should get gopi-bodies in the unmanifest (spiritual) world, and there they should attain personal service after gradually going up the stages like sneha and mana to mahabhava on the strength of associating with the nitya siddhas.”

To this question the author replies: “Without taking birth from the womb of a gopi it is impossible to nourish the human-like pastimes, because without knowing whose daughter, whose daughter-in-law and whose wife this is one can never have human-like acquaintance and customs with each other.

…

Here one may doubt that: Sri Krishna, the Original Personality of Godhead, descends in Vraja once in a day of Brahma and then performs His pastimes. In one day of Brahma there are fourteen Manvantaras, and Sri Krishna’s manifest pastimes take place once at the end of the Dvapara yuga in the 28th Caturyuga of the seventh Manvantara. Where and in what condition will the eager devotee, who has developed prema, stay all these days, after he gives up his body in a universe where he must wait many ages before Sri Krishna’s manifest pastimes commence again? It will be impossible for him to wait that long!

The answer to this is that the Lord will be kind to such a loving devotee, who has been very eager to attain His personal devotional service for so long, and when the devotee leaves his body He will once grant him His audience along with His associates, and will also give him a little of his long-desired devotional service, even though he has not attained the manifestations of prema known as sneha and mana. There is an example in the Srimad Bhagavata of the Lord giving a single darsana to Narada Muni, after he attained prema in his previous birth as the son of a maidservant. Certainly, this will not occur again and again, therefore there is a consolation in such an event that he will swiftly attain the kingdom of devotional service and attain his coveted service there. In this instance, we see Sri Narada once attaining the darsana of the Lord, and when he became eager to see the Lord again, the Lord consoled him with the following unembodied words –

sakrid yad darsitam rupam
etam kamaya te’nagha
mat kamah sanakaih sadhuh
sarvan muncati hricchayan
sat sevaya dirghayapi jata
mayi dridha matih ‘hitvavadyam
imam lokam ganta
maj janatam asi (S.B. 1.6.23-24)

“O sinless one! I showed you this form of Mine once, just to increase your desire to see Me! When the desire to see Me and to serve Me has arisen the devotee gradually gives up all desires for sense gratification. You have become fixed in Me simply by serving My devotees for a short while. Thus, you will swiftly give up this material world and attain My abode as one of My associates.”

The Lord also gives the desired gopi-body to a loving devotee who worships Him in the mood of a gopi. Yogamaya makes this body appear from the womb of a gopi at the time when Sri Krishna’s associates appear in Sri Vrindavana’s manifest pastimes. There won’t be even the slightest delay in this, because Sri Krishna’s manifest pastimes are constantly revolving within the innumerable material universes, just like a firebrand, without interruption. Not only that, each and every manifest pastime is also eternal. This means that as soon as the pastime of Krishna’s advent or His killing of Putana is completed it will commence again in some other material universe. In this way, each and every pastime is eternal, just like the ever-revolving firebrand.

Therefore, as soon as the sadhaka leaves his body, Yogamaya will grant him birth from a gopi’s womb in Vraja, in a universe where Sri Krishna has manifest Himself. tatraivasyam eva vrajabhumau “There, in that Vrajabhumi.” This sentence means that the holy dhama is a manifestation of Sri Krishna’s sandhini-sakti, His existence potency, and is all-pervading like Sri Krishna. This dhama is one and is simultaneously present in the spiritual world and in all the material universes.

sarvopari sri gokula vrajaloka dhama; sri goloka svetadvipa vrindavana nama sarvaga ananta vibhu krishna tanu sama; uparyadho vyapi ache nahika niyama brahmande prakasa tara krishnera icchaya; ekai svarupa tara nahi dui kaya (C.C.)

“Above all there is Sri Gokula, Vrajaloka-dhama, which is also called Sri Goloka, Svetadvipa and Vrindavana. This abode is all-pervading and endless, just like Krishna’s body; it extends above and below without any fixed rule. By Krishna’s wish it is manifest in the material universe in one form, not two.”

Therefore, it is not so that the dhama is different when it is situated in another universe. Thus, there is no need for the eager and anxious loving devotees to worry – by Sri Krishna’s wish they should know themselves to be in an all-auspicious situation.”

Question:

“The siddha deha exists in potentiality in the svarupa sakti – meaning all the varieties of seva, colors for dress, moods, etc… are there, but have not taken shape yet. What is your understanding?”

Answer (Tarun Govinda das):

Again, such a statement is not mentioned in any shastra.

It is not about “my understanding”.

Sometimes [most of the time], shastra is not there “to be understood”, but rather to be “accepted”. Understood at best in the anugatya of Sri Gurudeva and never independently.

The siddha deha, as already explained, is existing eternally. It is not existing in “potentiality” in the svarupa-sakti.

Srila Jiva Goswami tells us about the siddha deha:

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.”

Of course, several persons claim that this verse refers only to Vaikuntha-loka and not to Vrindavana.

But the answer is always the same:

Vaikuntha here means the spiritual world. Not just the Vaikuntha planets, but also Goloka and Gokula Vrindavana…the WHOLE spiritual world.

Like Srila Jiva Goswami writes: “No one falls from Vaikuntha.” (Bhagavat Sandarbha, Anuccheda 63)

Evidence enough for me that the siddha deha exists eternally and certainly BEFORE the sadhaka takes birth in prakat-lila.

The svarupa sakti is not like a “spiritual dough” made of “spiritual wheat” and Krishna then forms our individual bodies like different individual spiritual muffins or cupcakes (muffins or cupcakes being here our individual siddha dehas).

They are expansions of either Him or like in the case of a sakhi or manjari, of Radhika:

akara svabhava-bhede vraja-devi-gana
kaya-vyuha-rupa tanra rasera karana
( CC 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.”

What has not taken shape yet is the mentally conceived siddha deha which is contemplated upon by the sincere sadhaka. The purer our heart gets, the more we can feel and experience the siddha deha. So, from the sadhaka´s linear experience in sadhana-bhakti, the siddha deha continues to take shape more and more until it is fully manifest in our hearts.

“When prema is attained, the sadhaka has established a full self-identification as such and, forgetting his sadhaka body, he perceives his siddha svarupa day and night.”

But the ACTUAL siddha deha does NOT grow with the consciousness of the sadhaka. The ACTUAL, eternally perfect siddha deha manifests itself within the heart of the sadhaka when svarupa siddhi is attained.

It seems that from the perspective of the sadhaka [linear time conception], the siddha deha and its specifics [eleven bhavas] are “created” and it is true from this perspective. But “created” here means to more and more experience the real siddha deha manifest in our heart.

Therefore, it is written that Krishna bestows upon us a siddha deha suitable for our bhava. It is not that we create our own siddha deha and give Krishna the manual on how He should “create” or “form” it using His svarupa sakti.

 

So, attaining svarupa siddhi “activates” our siddha deha. It is then our identity. It is then us.

This process of attaining svarupa siddhi (perfection of our spiritual form) has a beginning [brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja (Caitanya caritamrta, Madhya 19.151) – “Wandering throughout the universe, some (kona) fortunate (bhagyavan) jivas by the mercy of Guru and Krishna receive (pāya) the seed of the devotional plant/creeper (bhakti lata bija)], but it has no end.

Svarupa siddhi is for all eternity.

Tarun Govinda das