Verse 7.5

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of verse 7.5:

अपरेयम् इतस् त्व् अन्यां प्रकृतिं विद्धि मे पराम् ।
जीव-भूतां महा-बाहो ययेदं धार्यते जगत् ॥ ५ ॥

apareyam itas tv anyāṃ prakṛtiṃ viddhi me parām |
jīva-bhūtāṃ mahā-bāho yayedaṃ dhāryate jagat || 5 ||

aparā–inferior or inert; iyam–this (material energy); itaḥ–beyond it; tu–but; anyām–another; prakṛtim–energy; viddhi–you must understand; me–of Mine; parām–superior (spiritual); jīva-bhūtām–the living beings; mahā-bāho–O mighty-armed (Arjuna); yayā–by which (conscious energy); idam–this; dhāryate–is accepted (by them in order to enjoy their fruitive actions); jagat–universe.

O mighty-armed Arjuna, you should know that My external energy, which consists of eight divisions, is inferior. There is another potency of Mine known as the jīva, which is superior and which accepts this material world for the purpose of enjoying the fruits of his action.

Commentary: Sārārtha-Varṣiṇī Ṭīkā

(By Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura; the innermost intention of the commentary named ‘the shower of essential meanings’)

Because its nature is inert, the earlier mentioned bahiraṅgā-śakti is inferior. The taṭasthā-śakti, in the form of the living entities (jīvas), is different from this external material potency and superior to it because of the presence of consciousness. It is superior because by its conscious nature it sustains the universe. In other words, it accepts the material world for the purpose of its own enjoyment.

Commentary: Sārārtha-Varṣiṇī Prakāśikā-vṛtti

(By Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja; the explanation that illuminates the commentary named Sārārtha-varṣiṇī)

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura quotes Kṛṣṇa as saying, “Besides this material nature (aparā-prakṛti), there is My marginal nature (taṭasthā-prakṛti), which is also called jīva (parā-prakṛti). That prakṛti is conscious and it manifests as the jīvas, or living entities. The jīvas emanating from that energy have made this inert material world conscious. The jīva has the capacity to understand and move in either the transcendental world, which has emanated from My internal energy, or in the inert, material world, which has emanated from My external energy. For this reason the jīva-śakti is also called the taṭasthā-śakti.”

Those bound souls (baddha-jīvas), who are averse to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, manifest in this world from this taṭasthā-śakti. It is a great misconception to think that the souls in bondage have given up their service to Kṛṣṇa and have come to this world from Vaikuṇṭha or even higher, from Goloka. This is opposed to siddhānta. Once a jīva has attained service to Kṛṣṇa in His abode, it is impossible for him to fall from that position.

As it is said in the Gītā (15.6):

yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṃ mama

Those who attain My supreme abode never return to this material world.

Citraketu Mahārāja and Jaya and Vijaya never fell down. They appeared in this world voluntarily and enacted the roles of conditioned souls for the pleasure of Bhagavān. The jīvas who are absorbed in service to Śrī Kṛṣṇa in the spiritual world manifest either from Śrī Baladeva Prabhu or from His expansion Mahā-Saṅkarṣaṇa who is non-different from Him. Those jīvas are eternally liberated. It is not possible that they ever fall.