Anyone who is in this material world, nitya-baddha.  And nitya-siddhas, they belong to the spiritual world.  They never come in contact with this material world, and even they come for some business under the order of the Supreme Lord, they do not touch these material qualities.  They remain always transcendental.  As Krishna remains always transcendental, even though He is in this material world, similarly, Krishna’s nitya-siddha associates, they are also transcendental.  They never touch this material world. (Bg. Lecture, 1973)

The mature devotees, who have completely executed Krishna consciousness, are immediately transferred to the universe where Krishna is appearing.  In that universe the devotees get their first opportunity to associate with Krishna personally and directly. (Krishna Book, Ch. 28, Releasing Nanda Maharaja From the Clutches of Varuna, p. 18.

In all these quotes from Srila Prabhupada the point to note is that in none of these places does he make a distinction between the nitya-siddhas (eternally perfect jivas) and sadhana-siddhas (the jivas who have attained perfection by sadhana).  He states categorically that no one falls from Vaikuntha.  Then where do the conditioned souls come from?  We have seen Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s explanation that the jivas in conditioned life come from Lord Maha-Visnu.  Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati has also confirmed that and by a careful reading of the Thirteenth Chapter of Bhagavad-gita we find that Srila Prabhupada agrees with them.  This chapter opens with Arjuna asking Krishna about nature (prakrti), the enjoyer (Purusa), the field, (the body), the knower of the field (the conditioned soul), knowledge, and the end of knowledge.  In 13.20 the Blessed Lord informs Arjuna about the origin of the conditioned soul:

“Material nature and the living entities should be understood to be beginningless.  Their transformations and the modes of matter are products of material nature.”

From the purport:

Both material nature and the living entity are eternal.  That is to say that they existed before the creation.  The material manifestation is from the energy of the Supreme Lord, and so also are the living entities, but the living entities are of the superior energy.  Both the living entities and material nature existed before this cosmos was manifested.  Material nature was absorbed in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Maha-Visnu, and when it was required, it was manifested by the agency of mahat-tattva.  Similarly, the living entities are also in Him, and because they are conditioned, they are averse to serving the Supreme Lord.

Every devotee understands from this that material nature is eternal although sometimes manifest and sometimes wound up into Maha-Visnu.  The common example given is that of a spider, which expands its energy in the form of its web and sometimes it takes the web back into its body.  Similarly, the material nature is manifested and unmanifested in a cycle that is anadi, beginningless.  There was no prior state to this beginningless cycle.  Every devotee accepts that is just the way things are, by the sweet will of the Lord.

Owing to a failure to appreciate the precise meaning of the word anadi, however, we do not understand that the anadi jiva could not have had a prior state to its relationship with the anadi material nature.  We know that material nature was never in Vaikuntha, but we mistakenly assume that the jiva was there before coming into the anadi cycle of bondage.  But Krishna does not make any distinction as to their origin.  He does not need to, because logically two beginningless events—material nature and the conditioned jiva—must be concurrent.  That is to say the material nature, the conditioned jivas, the spiritual nature, the liberated souls, and even Krishna Himself are all beginningless.  This is the inconceivable nature of the Absolute Truth.  None of these items had a prior state of existence. 

In the purport Srila Prabhupada clearly identifies both material nature and the living entities as having the same source, “Material nature was absorbed in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Maha-Visnu, and when it was required, it was manifested by the agency of mahat-tattva.  Similarly, the living entities are also in Him. . ..”  This cycle is beginningless both for material nature and the living entities, but for those jivas who take advantage of the path of devotional service, it has an end.  As Srila Prabhupada explains in the introduction to Bhagavad-gita, quoting Baladeva Vidyabhusana, karma has no beginning, but it can end.

Baladeva Vidyabhusana, commenting on this same verse of the Bhagavad-gita writes, evam mitho vivikta-svabhavayor anadyoh prakrti-jivayoh samsargasyanadikalikattvam, “In this way material nature and the living entity, who have a distinct nature and who are beginningless, are united in a relationship which has no beginning.”  He uses the word anadikalikattvam, “the beginningless union of the jiva with maya.” 

Commenting on the same verse Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura writes maya-jivayor-api mac-chaktitvena anaditvat tayoh samsleso’py anadir iti bhavah. [“The Lord says], ‘Because both maya and jiva are My potencies, they are both beginningless and thus their union is also beginningless.’  This is the sense of Lord Krishna’s words.”  Here he is using the nyaya principle that the qualities of anadi objects are also anadi.  In this case the material nature and the jiva are anadi, and the quality—bondage—is also anadi.  In fact, in the beginning of his commentary on this verse, he says, “In this verse Lord Krishna is answering two questions—why or how did the union of the jiva and maya occur?  And when did it occur?  He says that both of these are answered by the word anadi in this verse.  For the first question, anadi means na vidyate adi karanam yayoh, the union of maya and the jiva has no cause.  The answer to the second question is also anadi, it has no beginning.”

The conclusion is that the jiva’s bondage literally has no beginning.  Those jivas in the class called conditioned souls were always conditioned, nitya-baddha or anadi karma.