Destruction of universes
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In my answer to Jahnu's question about the relationship between mahat-tattva and pradhana, I included a paragraph that depicted the appearance of the universes, their maintenance and their destruction by the breath of Maha Visnu as happening in gradual phases. This depiction follows an example that compares the universes to bubbles. My idea was that bubbles generated by breathing will gradually increase in number (not abruptly appear all at once) as long as the exhalation endures. Similarly, when the same bubbles are breathed in, their number will gradually decrease (not abruptly disappear all at once) as long as the inhalation endures. Thus creation (mahat-tattva), maintenance (prakrti) and dissolution (pradhana) should be understood to overlap, and thus co-exist with one another. It is not that the mahat-tattva exists when the pradhana doesn't, and the pradhana exists when the mahat-tattva doesn't.
It seemed like a nice picturesque example. However, it seems to be contradicted by 2 verses in Srila Rupa Gosvami's Laghu-Bhagavatamrta, one by Rupa Gosvami himself, the other from the Visnu-dharma Purana. These appear as Laghu-Bhagavatamrta 5.328 and 329. These state that the universes are destroyed all at once, not gradually (yugapat, or "at the same moment" in 328, and sama-kalam, or "at the same time" in 329).
Let's leave the bubbles in the 7-Up but keep the philosophical point that the mahat-tattva and pradhana exist as simultaneous features of the one acit-sakti (material energy). Thus we should not be confused if it seems that these two terms are used interchangeably in the scriptures.
And the firmest proof I can offer is this quote from SB 3.26.20:
"Thus, after manifesting variegatedness, the effulgent mahat-tattva, which contains all the universes within itself, which is the root of all cosmic manifestations and WHICH IS NOT DESTROYED AT THE TIME OF ANNIHILATION, swallows the darkness that covered the effulgence at the time of dissolution."
That's the point.
Now, if someone asks, "Well, what about prakrti? Does that exist when the universes are destroyed?" We get an answer from the same Laghu-Bhagavatamrta, 5.329: prakrtau tisthati tada sa ratris -- "(the universes) are situated in their unmanifest state within the prakrti during Lord Maha Visnu's night."
These things are inconceivable. But you may remember the quotes provided in the original Danda text on this subject that showed mahat-tattva to be the subtle or original prakrti. So the universes continue to exist in an unmanifest state within the original prakrti of mahat-tattva. Thus prakrti, pradhana and mahat-tattva do co-exist as features of the acit-sakti.
ON ANOTHER TOPIC, namely the previous text with quotes about the living entity's spiritual situation before entering the material world, I suppose there is a lot more that could be asked about this. I did not mean for this answer to completely address what for many devotees is the "ultimate question" -- how did the spirit soul fall down in the first place?
All I want to show is that the living entity certainly was transcendentally situated before entering the material sphere. Also don't take this as my answer to the question, "Was the spirit soul originally in one of the personal rasas with Krsna before he fell down?" Obviously the answer I gave focuses on the soul who is not active in rasa. Still, he was in the spiritual world (i.e. with the Supreme Lord) before he came to the material world. That's clear. That's as far as Bhagadatta's question went.
If someone wants answers to the rasa question and the "how did we fall down?" question, there is as some of you may know a compilation of material available from Dravida and Drutakarma Prabhus. I could add a bit more to what they've provided, I guess. But does it really matter so much?