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Question: Liberated Soul Can Become Conditioned?

it is said that we have an eternal relationship with Lord Krishna. This means we had this relationship from time immemorial. Now let us consider a particular time when we were conditioned. Does this not mean that we were previously liberated? So, how can someone be conditioned after liberation? If we were conditioned from the beginning, then how can we say, "back to Godhead"? If we can be conditioned even after liberation, what is the meaning of "sat cit ananda" (eternity, knowledge, and bliss)? Please elaborate on this and bless me with a better understanding of Krishna and liberation.

Subrahmanyam,
 

Answer: By Misuse of Independence

Previously we were liberated in our eternal relationships with Krishna. That's a fact. But just as a free, liberated citizen can become a criminal due to a misuse of his freedom and consequently become arrested and put into prison, in the same way if a liberated soul misuses his independence, he will be imprisoned within this material existence.

Each of us has an eternal nature of sat, cit, and ananda (eternity, knowledge, and bliss). But just as gold can be covered by dirt, our eternal sat-cit-ananda natures have become covered by asat, acit, and  nirananda (temporality, ignorance and misery.)

The good news it that by taking seriously to the pathway of self-realization we can in one lifetime revive our original sat-cit-ananda, liberated natures and return to our eternal relationships with the Lord in the spiritual sky.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari