Acyutānanda: (reading question) "After physical death, the soul will take birth as per the saṁskāras, or past deeds. So what made the soul take birth in the very beginning?"
Prabhupāda: What is that? Very beginning?
Acyutānanda: "After the physical death of the body, the soul will take birth as per the past deeds."
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Acyutānanda: So what made the soul take birth in the first place?
Prabhupāda: In the first place?
Acyutānanda: What is the first birth? What is the cause of the first birth.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is stated in the Prema-vivarta:
- kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga vāñchā kare
- nikaṭa-stha māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare
- (Prema-vivarta)
As soon as... We are eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. As soon as we want to become master, that is the beginning of our first birth in the material world. We have got independence. Because, Kṛṣṇa says, mamaivāṁśo jīva bhūtaḥ (BG 15.7)—we are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa—so Kṛṣṇa has got full independence, but we are minute; therefore we have got minute independence. Our business is to serve Kṛṣṇa, but as soon as we give up this idea, we want to become master. That is the beginning of our material birth.