“Regarding your second question, have the conditioned souls ever seen Krsna? Were they with the Lord before being conditioned by the desire to lord it over the material nature? Yes, the conditioned souls are parts and parcels of the Lord and thus they were with Krsna before being conditioned. Just as the child must have seen his father because the father places the child in the womb of the mother, similarly each soul has seen Krsna or the Supreme Father. But at the time the conditioned souls are resting in the condition called susupti which is exactly deep sleep without dream, or anaesthetized state, therefore they do not remember being with Krsna when they wake up in
the material world and become engaged in material affairs. I hope this will satisfy your questions.”
(SPL to Jagadisa, 25th April, 1970)
“Your first question about the jiva’s form with particular reference to Bhagavad-gita (8.18) purport ‘during the night time they have no form.’ During the night time they have no form, means there is no material form. The simple understanding is as we are transmigrating from one material form to another, so actually in this material world we have no fixed form. Similarly when we are spiritually perfect we develop the spiritual form to live eternally in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world there are exactly the same things as we see here; namely the land, water, trees, birds, beasts, human beings, etc., and all of them are spiritual as all the varieties here are material. So these things can be understood when one is advanced in self-realization. The real form of the living entity is eternal servant of Krsna. Now this spiritual form is developed when he enters into the spiritual world.”
(SPL to Gurudasa, 16th May, 1970)