Question: I was reading Srimad Bhagavatam 3.26.5 purport where Prabhupada talks about nitya-baddha. How one can be nitya-baddha or eternally conditioned? One can take the process of devotional service seriously by accepting a bona fide spiritual master and can achieve the transcendental association of the Lord and go beyond the cycle of birth and death. So, how one can be nitya-baddha or eternally conditioned? I thought a soul is temporarily conditioned.
Answer by Romapada Swami: The term ‘nitya baddha’ refers to the living being’s long-term entanglement in matter going beyond even the beginning of the present creation. It does NOT allude to a condition where some souls are permanently conditioned, nor does it preclude them from ever becoming liberated.
In the purport quoted above, Srila Prabhupada explains: ‘We say that they have been conditioned from time immemorial because no one can trace out when the living entity, the part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, became rebellious against the supremacy of the Lord.’ In other words, it is not a chronological event that can be traced within the history of material time as we know it. Material time itself has a beginning at the beginning of each cycle of creation, whereas the soul exists eternally and his predisposition towards the Lord precedes the creation and the beginning of Time as we know it.
In that sense, the word ‘nitya‘ or ‘eternally conditioned’ in the context of our material bondage is not used in the sense of absolute time but in terms of material time. If this was not so, Lord Krishna and all the great acharyas would not take the trouble to give us the process of liberation and encourage us to revive or reestablish our eternal loving relationship with Him.
