People are running around–“Oh, I am the manager. I am the factory owner. I am this. I am that. We know his politics, we have to defeat our competitors.” All these things are created just like a man creates a situation in a dream– svapna–drastur ivanjasa.
So when someone asks, “When did we come into contact with the material nature?” The answer is that we have not come into contact. By the influence of the material energy, we THINK that we are in contact. Actually we are NOT fallen. We cannot be fallen. We have simply created a situation. Rather, we have not created a situation; Krsna has given us a situation. Because we wanted to imitate Krsna, Krsna has given an opportunity: “All right. You want to imitate? You want to be an imitation king on the stage. So feel like this.
Play like this. Do like this. People will applaud–“Oh, a very nice king!” Everyone in the material world is playing some part. “I want to be prime minister” ” I want to be very big business magnate.” “I want to be a leader.” “I want to be a philosopher.” “I want to be a scientist.” They are trying to play all these nonsense parts and Krsna is giving the opportunity–“All right.” But these things are all nonsense. Simply dreaming. When you dream, the next moment the dream is gone, and everything in the dream is finished. No more tiger. No more jungle. Similarly, as long as the body continues, I think, “I am a responsible leader. I am this, I am that.” but as soon as the body is finished, these ideas are gone.
“Krsna says, mrtyuh sarva-haras caham : ‘I am death. I take everything away.’ Just think of our past life. Suppose I was a king or something like that. From the Bhrighu-samhita it was ascertained that I was a big physician in my last life, with a spotless character, no sins. I don’t know.
It may be. But I have no remembrance that I was a physician. So what do we know? I might have been a very big influential physician, with good practice, but where is it all now? All gone! So our contact with matter is just like a dream. We are not fallen., therefore at any moment, we can revive our Krsna consciousness. We become liberated as soon as we understand “I have nothing to do with the matter. I am simply Krsna’s eternal servant.” Sometimes when a fearful dream becomes intolerable we break the dream. Similarly, we can break the material connection at any moment as soon as we come to the point of Krsna consciousness. “Oh, Krsna is my eternal master. I am His servant.” That’s all. That is the way.
Actually, we are not fallen. We cannot be fallen. The same example: Actually there is no tiger; it is dreaming. We are not fallen. We can simply give up that illusory condition at any moment.
SOURCE: From the BTG article a few years back called “The soul’s Fall” containing this wonderful lecture by our beloved Srila Prabhupada