In the first chapter we mentioned that Srila Bhaktivinoda gave a novel explanation of the word anadi.  In Jaiva Dharma, Chapter Sixteen, Bhaktivinoda Thakura defines the meaning of anadi karma:

“The root of all karma is the desire to act and that has its root in avidya.  To forget that ‘I am the servant of Krishna’ is avidya.  This avidya is not born in material time.  It arises at the tatastha region.  Therefore, karma has no beginning in material time.  For this reason, karma is called “anadi.”

Some people take this definition of anadi as an indication of the fall down of the jiva, thinking that if karma did not begin in material time it must begin in spiritual time, but this is impossible.  It surely cannot have a beginning in spiritual time because, according to Bhaktivinoda Thakura, every event in the spiritual world is eternal (Chapter 15). 

Furthermore, in the spiritual world, material time is conspicuous by its absence.  As Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati writes (Brahma Samhita 56):

 “I worship that transcendental seat, known as Svetadvipa where there is eternal existence of transcendental time, who is ever present and without past or future and hence is not subject to the quality of passing away even for the duration of half a moment.” 

If karma had a beginning in the spiritual world, it would never come to an end, but all Vedic philosophers agree that karma comes to an end at the point of liberation.  Therefore, Bhaktivinoda Thakura said that avidya, the root cause of karma, arose at the tatastha region, not in Vaikuntha.  We leave it to the sagacious reader to figure out the whereabouts of the tatastha region.  In any case, it is not Vaikuntha.

The point is that karma has no beginning either in spiritual time or material time.  Hence it is rightly called anadi, beginningless.  Whether you say, “It has no beginning in material time” or “It has no beginning,” it means the same thing.  Material conditioning cannot have a beginning in spiritual time.  That is self-contradictory.  If conditioned life had its beginning in the spiritual world or spiritual time, then the jiva would never be able to attain liberation, because its karma would then be eternal.

Moreover, there is no possibility of material conditioning outside material time because maya exists only within material time.  So, if it has no beginning in material time and no beginning in spiritual time, it is beginningless, anadi.  Therefore, the meaning of anadi given by Bhaktivinoda Thakura is the same as that used by our other acaryas, such as Srila Jiva Gosvami.  Bhaktivinoda Thakura has apparently just stated the case in a slightly different way.

This is evident from his comment on Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.12.21 in Bhagavat-arka-marici mala (8.31

“The Lord said, “O Uddhava, this universe which is in the form of individual and aggregate entities is the beginningless universal tree.” 

Here the material bodies of the conditioned living entities as well as the aggregate universal body are compared to samsarataru purana.  The important point is that the word anadi is used both for the individual tree as well as the aggregate tree, the universe.  If the individual tree is not accepted as beginningless, then the universal tree is not accepted as beginningless.  That means once there was no material nature, but this is unacceptable, because the Lord says in Bhagavad-gita (13.20) that both the material nature and the living entity are beginningless, anadi. 

This beginningless event is undergoing a beginningless cycle of creation and annihilation.  As he further writes, (ei taru) karma-pravahamaya, this tree is undergoing a flow or cycle of karma.  Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, commenting on the same Bhagavatam verse (11.12.21), says,

“Purana means beginningless.” 

The popular meaning of the word purana is old or ancient, yet both Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura translate it as anadi.  If Bhaktivinoda Thakura had any other meaning of anadi in his mind, he could have written it as a more traditional synonym of purana instead of anadi. 

Therefore, the only meaning of the word anadi as used by Bhaktivinoda Thakura is beginningless.  His attempt to explain anadi differently in Jaiva Dharma and other works was on account of the audience he had to preach to in his time.  This is discussed in the Second Wave of this book.

If someone still has doubts about the truth of no fall from Vaikuntha and that the conditioning of the jiva is anadi, with no prior state, then Bhaktivinoda Thakura further writes (Jaiva Dharma, Chapter Seventeen:): 

“There are two types of jivas liberated from maya—nitya-mukta, eternally liberated, and baddha-mukta, those who were bound but became liberated.  The jivas who were never bound by maya are called nitya-mukta.  The nitya-muktas are also of two types, aisvarya gata nitya mukta and madhurya gata nitya mukta.  The former are the associates of Lord Narayana in Vaikuntha and are the atomic particles from mula Sankarsana.  The latter are the associates of Lord Krishna in Goloka.  They are the atomic particles of Sri Baladeva situated in Goloka Vrinavana.”

In this description of nitya-muktas, he does not count the jivas bound in the material world who come from Maha-Visnu.  After this he describes the three classes of baddha-muktas, or those who were bound and became liberated.  Nowhere does he mention a class called mukta-baddha—or those who were liberated and became bound. Therefore, it is conclusive that he does not support the theory of fall down from Vaikuntha.