And on p. 365-6 he writes:

“Vishnu has three energies, one of them is meant for manifestation of His eternal Abode, another Potency is for creating all human souls who are emanations from His Tatastha-shakti found between the temporal and eternal worlds.  By this potency He creates human souls.  The human soul has two different predilections.  If he desires to serve God-head he is allowed into the Eternal Region.  If he desires to lord it over this world he comes down for enjoying in different capacities the products of the Deluding Potency.”

This does not mention fall from Vaikuntha, but from tatastha, which is the marginal potency, situated between the spiritual and material potencies.  The souls there are in an indolent stage of existence.  No resident of Vaikuntha could be described as “indolent,” so this is surely not Vaikuntha.  This verdict agrees exactly with Bhaktivinoda Thakura in Jaiva Dharma.  In the same book on page 366 Srila Bhaktisiddhanta writes:

“This position, which is like a geometrical line, is designated tatastha-sakti, the fountain-head of all human souls.  Tatastha-sakti is located between the two potencies of Vishnu one of which maintains this transforming world and the other is the source of the manifestation of the eternal world that does not change like this world.  These potencies belong to the Personality of God-head Vishnu.”

He also says that there is no ignorance in the spiritual world which means that nobody makes mistakes out of ignorance. (p. 390-1):

“In Chit-jagat there is no ignorance whatsoever of free souls whereas in impressions of fallen fettered souls are always obscured with intervening materials.”

In Srila Bhaktisiddhanta’s Vivrti commentary on Bhagavatam 3.7.12 he writes,

“Being situated in bhakti-yoga a liberated person never becomes miserly or bound.” 

And in his Vivrti Sara on Catuh sloki bhagavatam (2.9.35), he writes:

“Prakrti, time, and karma, these can neither generate nor destroy a conscious entity or the non-dual reality.  These are distinct from the conscious entity and thus they are counted among the acit, or inert, group.  Out of these three, the first two are indestructible.  Karma is destructible but it has no beginning.”

Here he clearly accepts karma as beginningless, which means the jiva could not have been in Vaikuntha prior to being entrapped in karma, because this would negate the beginningless nature of karma.  The problem is that fall-vadis do not appreciate that when a beginningless event, karma, is associated with a beginningless entity, the jiva, it means that both must be concurrent.  One could not have had a prior existence.  Both are simultaneously beginningless.  Therefore, if beginningless karma could not have begun in the spiritual world then the beginningless jiva bound by karma could not have been in the spiritual world either.

Sometimes it appears from the writing of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati that he is indicating a fall from Vaikuntha, but careful study of the text and its proper reconciliation with definitive statements such as those cited above easily removes such doubts.  One such passage is seen in his Vivrti on Bhagavatam 11.2.48:

“The conditioned soul, binding himself to sense perception, exists in the material world having attachment or hatred along with his material experience, but he cannot understand that these do not exist in the nature of Vaikuntha.  Maya, which is the energy of Lord Visnu and real, bewilders the jiva, who is part a product of the tatastha sakti, in sense perception and keeps him without service to Lord Visnu.  Then being bewildered and covered, he is fallen from advaya-vaikuntha.”

From the last statement, it seems very clear that we have fallen from Vaikuntha, but that is far from the truth.  There is no maya there.  The devotees in Vaikuntha can neither be bewildered or covered by her, which is the prerequisite of falling down.  The statements that the jiva is “bewildered,” “covered,” or fallen, do not mean that they happen at a particular time.  The conditioning of the jiva has no beginning and thus he has always been bewildered, covered, and in a fallen state.  In the same Bhagavatam commentary just a few verses before (Vivrti on Bhag. 11.2.37), Srila Bhaktisiddhanta wrote,

 “Vrajendra-nandana, the non-dual consciousness, is the svayam-rupa tattva.  Those who have taken shelter of Him, being situated in their own svarupa, have no opportunity to invoke any kind of inauspiciousness.” 

And there is never a time that nitya-mukta devotees are not situated in their own svarupa because nothing else is possible.

According to the Samsad Bengali English Dictionary, the word cyuta means “got detached, dislocated, dislodged, come away, shed, fallen, or slipped” and so on.  Later in this book we explain that the word patita (literally fallen), when describing the conditioned state of the jiva, does not imply a previously liberated state.  The same applies to the word cyuta, which is a synonym of patita.  Although, in the quote from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, it is translated in the last line as “he is fallen from advaya-Vaikuntha,” the real meaning is that he is dislocated or cut-off from advaya-Vaikuntha.  The use of the passive voice in the statement of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta (“is fallen”) indicates simply that the jiva is in a fallen state in relationship to his Vaikuntha dharma and not that he falls from Vaikuntha.  This condition is beginningless. 

A similar instance where Srila Bhaktisiddhanta seems to indicate a fall down from Vaikuntha is seen in his book Caitanya’s Teachings (p. 350):

“Because we have shown diffidence we have proved our indolence to associate with Him; so, like shooting stars, we have been simply thrown off from Him.  We have rebelled against that Entity.  Now to go back to Him, it is essential that all our associations and movements should tend to His service.”

This seems to imply a fall-down from Lord Krishna’s association, but, again, close scrutiny reveals that this is not the case, because if we accept the above words literally then we are contradicting his statements in other parts of this and other books, some of which we have cited above.  The above reference is from a dialogue between Srila Bhaktisiddhanta and a German lady named Mrs. Nora Moreli.  It is difficult for a Westerner to grasp such difficult concepts in their original sense.  Therefore, a preacher is bound to put it in simple terms.  Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura also said that such concepts cannot be understood unless the heart is purified.  This also explains why Srila Prabhupada made fall down statements in his letters and conversations.