Krsna - The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Spiritual Questions and Answers with Radhanath Swami

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 16:02:00 +0000

How to get out of the cosy zone?
Question to Radhanath Swami: I understand that I have to change for the better. But to get out of the cosy zone is very difficult at times. How to come out of that cosy zone with determination?
Radhanath Swami Answers: In order to make progress in any field, you should have faith in where you are going and you must be willing to take a certain amount of risk. A mother is gladly willing to go through so many changes, and she is gladly willing to come out of her cosy zone because she wants a child. She goes though the changes with gratitude because she is so happy that she has a child that will grow up.

It is much cosier to sit on your couch, eat potato chips and watch television than get up and run. But if you want to be healthy you have to run and work on health. On every level, to progress, tapasya or austerity is required.
We have to come out of the cosy zone for achieving anything. If you do not do it willingly for a higher cause – and the highest cause is to reconnect with God – material nature is going to tear you out anyways. Disease tears you out of cosy zone; old age tears you out of cosy zone. Nobody can remain in cosy zone, so why be attached to it? Have faith in higher cause and step out to make progress.

Prabhupada Katha

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 12:53:00 +0000

As they walked together under a steel bridge, Prabhupada pointed upward with his walking cane, "Look"-a sign under the bridge read UNALLOYED STEEL-"they have unalloyed steel, and we have unalloyed devotional service.
"What if people don't want to hear our message?" Pradyumna asked.
"The people might not understand our message, but Krsna will be pleased," Prabhupada replied. "And that is our mission. They thought Jesus Christ's mission was stopped. They killed him. But his mission was attained. He preached three years only, but so many followers. He pleased Krsna. We must not be disappointed that no one is hearing Krsna consciousness. We will say it to the moon and stars and all directions. We will cry in the wilderness, because Krsna is everywhere. We want to get a certificate from Krsna that "This man has done something for Me.” Not popularity. If a pack of asses says you are good, what is that? We have to please Krsna's senses with purified senses."

Spiritual Questions and Answers with Radhanath Swami

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 12:51:00 +0000

How to keep the mind steady?
Question to Radhanath Swami: I wanted to know how to keep the mind steady; usually we have contradictory ideas and thoughts going in mind.
Radhanath Swami Answers: The nature of the mind is like that of a monkey, it jumps from branch to branch. It goes to one branch, then to the next branch, then to the branch next to that, then again the first branch—2nd, 4th, 10th,1st, 9th, 3rd. It’s the way the mind works. But when you give the monkey a nice ripe banana, it’s happy. Similarly, Bhakti is about giving the mind a deep and fulfilling experience.

Though we may not get that higher taste immediately, but since we know it’s there waiting for us, that helps us keep the mind steady. Coming back to the analogy of the monkey, if the monkey has the banana, it will stop jumping from branch to branch even before it has tasted the banana; it stops jumping in order to go through the process of pealing the banana.
Our spiritual practice, our sadhana, is like pealing the banana. We know that the higher taste is there – inside – just as the monkey knows that the banana is there inside the peal. And just knowing that it is there, and keeping our mind focussed on the process, our mind can be kept steady.
So when we are chanting the holy names the mind will go here and there; do not worry about it; just bring it back. Bring it back to the divine sound vibration, to that object of our meditation. Try to keep it there, and if it runs away – and it will surely run away–we bring it back as soon as we realize it has run away.
While we do seva, if we realize our mind is wandering, we just bring it back. ‘I am doing this for Krishna; let me do it in the best possible way.’ The more we take responsibility to do something wonderful for God – sweeping the floor, cooking a meal or doing our business – if we are really doing it for Krishna, for God, we are going to be attentive to whatever details we can, and that keeps our mind focussed.

Question and Answers with HH Radhanath Swami

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 13:19:00 +0000

Today's Q&A
----
Maharaj I have a question from one of the student here… he says Maharaj one of my friend is asking me If Krishna can have so many wives why cant I have at least 2 or more? I tried to answer him Maharaj but he is not satisfied, please tell me Maharaj what do I have to say to him.

HH RadhaNath Swami Maharaj:
How many wives he has now? If he has two or more wives, then he already know the answer. In fact if he has one wife also he would have got the answer.
Lord Krishna had 16108 wives and he expanded himself to 16108 forms to give company to each wife all day all night, and all of them were perfectly satisfied with his love, devotion care and protection. That’s Lord Krishna, he is the supreme whole, he is all perfect, he is maintaining and nourishing the whole universe. There is no problem for him to have 16 thousand wives, or 16million wifes or 16 billion wives. He is maintaining every living entity in all creation. I am 52 years old, I have travelled around the world many times, and to be very honest to you, I have not seen a man perfectly satisfied with even one wife. So be honest my friend, …many of them become Bramhachari’s (everyone start laughing)… that means they don’t see point in even trying.
But actually the reason they have become Bramhachari’s is much more noble cause than that. The person does not become Bramhachari or Sanyasi, because he does not want to take responsibility of wife and family. The person becomes a Sadhu, because he is willing to make a sacrifice to uplift the whole human society. Gouranga Prabhu ki Jai, Gour Gopal Prabhu ki jai.
It's Radhastami eve 🌟💫
Krishnas feet burn from hot milk offered to Radharani:
Many, many years after leaving Vraja, Krishna met the Vrajavasis at Kurukshetra.
Of course, srimati Radharani and all the Gopis had come too.
At night, after they retired to their respective tents, Krishna told Rukmini that Radharani loves to have milk before sleeping, so please go and give her milk.
Now Rukmini was not too happy about this but she had to do Krishna’s bidding of course.
So she brought hot milk for Radha.
She asked Radharani to drink it fast, so that she could go back to her tent and tell Krishna that Radharani drank the milk.
She obeyed, although the milk was still so hot that it burnt her throat. But Radharani did not say a word.
Rukmini went back to the tent, and as was her usual Service to Krishna, she started massaging His Lotus Feet.
t was then that she noticed that His Feet had sores all over it and she was shocked and asked Him what happened.
He told her, you asked Radharani to drink very hot milk, and as she always meditates on my Feet, it was not Her throat, but it was my Feet that got burnt. Rukmini wept!!!
It was then only that she realized how pure and how complete Radharani's love for Krishna was!...
HK🙏🏽

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 15:11:00 +0000

Question and Answers by HH Radhanath Swami

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 15:01:00 +0000

Self Confidence vs. Over Confidence
Question to Radhanath Swami: How will you distinguish between self confidence and over confidence?
Radhanath Swami Answers: We should be willing to take risks and have courage to go beyond what we feel we can do. But is has to be realistic. Enthusiasm and patience are necessary for real achievement on the spiritual platform.

In one sense we should not be afraid of being over confident, if it is based on the proper foundation of confidence and faith. However, we should not be stupid. Srila Praphupada, our Guru, used to say that you shouldn’t go to the forest and embrace the tiger, even though you know that God is in the heart of the tiger; you shouldn’t lovingly kiss the lips of a cobra, even though you know that he is a child of God. That is a type of over confidence, because it’s just beyond your level of reality. You have to be intelligent.
So there must be proper utilization of intelligence and at the same time enthusiasm and patience, devoid of arrogance. But don’t be afraid to strive for things beyond the horizon of your ideals.

Movies or Fake Godmen

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 22:35:00 +0000

It is said a picture is worth thousand words and if we extend this proverb, it can be said that a motion picture is worth thousand pictures. Concepts which may not be understood by words can be easily depicted in movies and conveyed with great ease even to the most common person. Thus Movies are a great tool which can influence many in a short period of time. Like a knife when used by a surgeon can save people’s life and when used by a robber can take people’s life, movies can have a similar effect, based on the intentions behind making movies. Lately In the Bollywood world (Indian Movie Industry) there have been a couple of movies which have raised some question on religion and have stirred the sentiments of many. Religion is a sensitive topic and any ignorant or uninformed claims made about religion can disturb people’s sentiments. It has often seen that people who do not know much about material science do not dare to speak or comment in public about them , however when it comes to religion, every Tom, Dick and Harry has an opinion and they are not afraid to voice it loud and bold . In this article I am not trying to condemn the questions that are raised by the movies like “Oh My God” and “PK” about religion. In fact these questions that are raised are legitimate and should be asked. Although these movies do a great job in raising these questions, unfortunately they end up providing inaccurate conclusions, which many times misleads people and makes them think openly or subtly against religion. This article, is an attempt to rationally appeal to those who are influenced by these movies to look for the correct answers to the legitimate questions raised about religion as presented in modern times.

Influence of Movies

In today’s fast paced world when media and internet have become lifelines for most of the people, movies play a very important role in influencing the mindsets of people. Most people in today’s day and age are not interested with reading or hearing, but are more inclined towards watching. Often we see a new movie that becomes a hit , soon after that , people want to look like the characters in the movie or want to talk, speak , dress like the actors or actress . All the stores are filled with merchandise from the movie and people are running to get them. People may admit or not, but Television and Movies have sure impact on our minds some of which may be more evident and some may be more subtle. From the point of view of outreach, Movies influence many cultures and groups of people in a very short period of time. With so much of influence Movies certainly have lot of potential to make or break people’s beliefs by mass propaganda. When similar concepts are bombarded again and again on minds of the people, people start doubting their beliefs and start believing what they are been told. In context to this article Many people will think that reactions of religionist to the movies like “Oh My God” and “PK” is fanatical, certainly responding to them in a violent and aggressive manner is not a sane approach and will be labelled as fanatical , however intellectually clarifying the doubts raised by these movies is essential mainly because of the influencing power the movies have on people especially the youth who are the future of any nation. Young minds are intelligently questioning the traditions and a intellectual and practical response to these questions will restore and increase the confidence of the youth in the spiritual culture.

Motivation behind making movies:

Commercial Movie making is an art and although some may have a good intention of social service, most of them are made with a mindset of earning profit. For example , If before the movie was released the crew members and the actors were told that all the earnings from this movie will be donated and they are not going to get a single penny , how many will be inspired to work for that movie for a social cause ? .Movies like “Oh My God” and “PK” are raising these important questions which may seem to an untrained eye as social awareness work but by not providing satisfactory answers and giving their opinions as conclusive truths they are just misleading the people. This proves that there was not much research done to find out the truth before posing these questions in the movie. Since Entertainment business flourishes on Controversial topics, these topics earn them a fortune as everyone is likely to see these movies because of the controversy. In short, movie making is a business which is directed towards making money, with this motivation it is very easy for movie makers to show and depict something controversial without thoroughly researching the truth behind it providing an opinion which will be to the liking of common populace, who in general are innocent and ignorant about the facts and tend to believe what they are shown.

Movies are not the Authority

In every field of study there are authorities, just like in the field of medicine, doctors are the authority and people do not make medical decisions on their own. Even though we hear and see many fake doctors and controversies happening in the field of medicine, still people do not reject doctors altogether, but in turn they make the necessary effort and use the intelligence to find out real doctor who can treat them honestly. However when it comes to God, any person on the street seems to become the authority and starts giving his or her opinion. Movies like “ Oh My God “ and “ PK” have strong statements against Fake God men who try to cheat people based on their fears and the conclusion that seems to be presented in these movies is to not go to any spiritual teachers and try to find out God ourselves. By trying to preach this gospel these movies themselves are trying to become “God men” and misdirecting people to incorrect conclusions, based on the innocent people’s ignorance about this matter, which just leads to more confusion and dismay. It is true that there are many false God men who are making a business of religion, but to say that all God men are fake is an absolute statement. At least in recent times, I am yet to find a movie which depicts sadhus and religious people in a respectful way, all the people playing sadhus or religionist are either depicted as cheaters or used for humorous scenes, which downgrades their value in eyes of the common people. Although these movies have raised valid questions, they fail to provide correct answers to these questions and in guise of social activist , they are becoming another breed of Fake God men who are directing the innocent people in the wrong direction taking advantage of their ignorance. If these movies were really concerned about providing enlightening answers to the questions like, why to worship a murti, why we need God men, why do we go to temple when god is present everywhere, it would have made an attempt to find out the real answers and present it in the movie rather than leaving them unanswered for people to speculate and make a mockery of these age old practices, which are practiced with understanding by millions of well-educated and intellectual people.

Call for Action.

To summarize this article, it is not our intention to defame any movies or make any judgments about them, but when movies which have tremendous influence on the minds of the people are used to raise the questions on wrongs that are going in the field of religion, it is also needed that movie makers make a reasonable research behind these questions that are raised trying to understand them with logic and faith. To disregard religious practices and rituals as foolish and primitive is a great disservice to the society. Some people who are firm in their faith will disregard these statements in the movie as irrelevant since they know the truth, some people who are atheist and don’t care for religion at all, will take this as an assertion to their beliefs, but many of the people who are innocent will have many questions and these movies will add to their confusion. Questions raised by these movies are very important and they should be answered with logic and philosophy. Fortunately some true God men who are striving for spiritual success have taken this task and are providing answers to these questions , after reading and understanding them with open mind, people who are looking for the truth sincerely will find these questions answered in the most convincing way . Please find some of the links and books which are written on this topic at the end of the article. In the course of studying any subject it is always wise to question and clarify doubts, in the same way it is very essential to question and clarify doubts with an inquiring spirit from the right source and if the answers are received with an open mind it will clear all the doubts and misleading arguments which such movies propagate.

Resources.

1. H.G. Chaitanya Carian Prabhu has written a book called “ Oh my God : Re-Answering the Questions” , it is available in Pune ISKCON temple or a PDF version is available on his website

http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/books/

2. http://www.thespiritualscientist.com, answers many of the questions raised by movies like “Oh My God” and PK.

3. There is a drama done by ISKCON PUNE devotees based on answering the questions raised by movie “Oh My God “it is called “Oh My God Returns” which provides logical answers to these challenging questions. This drama is available on you tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMxPIY8G6RA

Listening but not Hearing

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 18:31:00 +0000

Sravanam kirtanam Vishnu Smaranam ..

This Verse as found in the Srimad Bhagvatam emphasizes the importance of Hearing . It is the first step in progression of Spiritual Life to Hear attentively from the Proper spiritual authority. A person who hears attentively can assimilate the message properly and apply in one's life, thus making his/her life successful. After this follows the other 8 processes of Devotional service namely kirtanam etc. If one has not heard the message correctly he/ she will not be able to make much progress in spiritual life. We see in any gathering there are thousands and millions of people who come and listen to the spiritual talks , but only a few actually hear.

What does it mean to "Hear". Many people today Listen , but do not Hear. Instructions are given and many listen to them , give a ear to them , but do not assimilate the meaning or do not take them to heart, thus there is no transformation of heart that takes place. After listening to the spiritual topics some simply ignore them others , some pious minded people feel good about it , but rarely someone assimilates them and desires to put them in practice. It is seen often the Spiritual teachers many a times repeat the same instructions multiple times. For example Srila Prabhupada often repeated many famous verses from Bhagavad Gita in every lecture he gave. Most of his lectures stress on the same basic principle that we are not this body but the spirit soul . Often devotees wondered why did he always stress this point and did not talk anything other than this. The reason for this is because of the tendency of the mind to automatically accepts things which are favorable for one's sense gratification and reject those which prove to be contrary to it .

Also the attention span of people in Kaliyuga is not more than a few mins and the flickering mind will take them elsewhere after a few mins . Hence it becomes necessary to repeat and stress a important point multiple points , for the people to start acknowledging the importance of the point. If people acknowledge , they would think about it and then put it in action. Unless all the teachings in Bhagavad Gita are put in practice as it is with guidance from a bonafide spiritual guide, one will not reap any benefit by just reading and listening it superficially . One has to really " Hear" the message from the heart to understand and realize the message . Although the Bhagavad gita is only the start of a spiritual journey , it is the foundational philosophy which needs to be understood in its true essence . A person who takes this seriously and applies these teaching in the life , he/ she will experience a sublime happiness which cannot be found by other material means . One will have a purpose in life which is transcendental and full filling , A purpose of the soul, beyond the precincts of the material and mental plane.

It is a human tendency to really become attentive and interested to listen to philosophy of life when some major crisis is going on in once life, however people in Kaliyuga have degraded to such an extend that as soon as the crisis is over , they revert back to their old habits. Bhagavad Gita was spoken to Arjuna in a battlefield , where Arjuna was overwhelmed with grief with the thought of killing his kinsmen whom he adored and loved all this life. Of course Arjuna was a great devotee of the Lord and was representing a common man on the directions of Krsna. The situation in which Arjuna was put was nerve breaking for any person and which induced him to surrender to the instructions of Krsna. In such a situation he was able to hear attentively and assimilate the message of Bhagavad Gita completely and act upon that.

Most of the people are not in such a crisis situation and even if they fall into such situations , they tend to resort to other ways like drinking and smoking , instead of turning to the right source i.e. Krsna. This is the unfortunate state of the people of Kaliyuga. Even people who are pious when in crisis generally approach the Lord for the mitigation of their grief, however after the crisis is over they forget any instructions and resort to their normal ways which leads them to yet another crisis.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says in this age only a very fortunate soul achieves the real purpose of life i.e. devotional service, by the mercy of Spiritual Master and Lord Krsna.

It is said mercy of the Lord is causeless, but this should not mean that we should not make any effort to understand and try our best to prove to the Lord that we are eligible for his mercy . If we put little effort to Hear the instructions of the great souls on spiritual topics and apply them in life , Krsna promises that a little effort in this direction will save one from the greatest danger. So why should we waste our time and not pay attention to such important topics that are been delivered to by us who are compassionate. Srila Prabhupada toiled hard during his old age to give us this knowledge in the simplest possible form, so that we could hear and take advantage of the facilities he has provided to us , in the form of his temples, books, his devotees, prasadam and ISKCON.

Hearing only a few words attentively and applying will make our lives success full. So next time when we hear a spiritual discourse by bonafide representatives of the Lord , we should shut off all the doors of our mind and concentrate on these sublime words with all the heart trying to understand on instruction thoroughly and apply them in our life.

Importance of Association

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 21 Jun 2014 22:44:00 +0000

You are what you associate with, in general our consciousness gets molded based on our association . The more we associate with a particular kind of group more we develop the qualities and characteristics of the people in that group. This is true for spiritual advancement as well. If one is interested in becoming spiritually strong and attain the ultimate goal of life, Love of Godhead, he has to find out such an association which has like minded people and who are striving for the same goal. One should regularly associate with sadhus and saintly persons, in this way one will develop the saintly qualities of a sadhu and become freed from anxiety.

Caitanya Caritamrta says

’sädhu-saìga’, ‘sädhu-saìga’—sarva-çästre kaya
lava-mätra sädhu-saìge sarva-siddhi haya [ Madhya lila 22.54]

“The verdict of all revealed scriptures is that by even a moment’s association with a pure devotee, one can attain all success.

The statement from Caitanya Caritamrta is not at all exaggerated the power of Vaisnava Association is inconceivable, a moments association with saintly person leaves a lasting impression in ones heart. Although one may not see the effect of this right away , but in time this impression in the heart will fructify and bear results. Scriptures give many examples in this regard.

One such story comes to mind is of the Hunter Mrgari, when Narada muni was travelling through a jungle, he saw many animals being pierced with arrows at very strategic points of their body , which was causing them a lot of pain, they were all crying in agony. Narada muni felt compassion for these animals and started thinking who was this cruel man , who was not killing these animals but causing them so much pain . Then he came across a hunter named Mrgarari, he told Narada Muni that he has been shooting arrows to these animals, when Narada muni asked why he was not killing them completely ,hunter replied that this is how his father taught him to kill the animals by giving them pain. On hearing this Narada Muni explained to the hunter the consequences of his action and how he would have to suffer in hell for lifetimes for causing pain to these living entities. Mrgarari immediately asked for a way be free from this karma . Narada muni instructed him to leave this profession and simply build a small cottage and chant Hare Krsna , he said that all the food that hunter and his family will need he himself will sent it .

The hunter followed the instructions of Narada Muni and when the people in the village heard that hunter has become a vaisnava they came to see him with offerings of food. After sometime Narada muni visited Mrgarari with his friend Prabat muni, On seeing his spiritual master Mrgarari was happy and ran towards him to offer his obeisances, however he saw some ants crawling in front of him and inorder to not kill any ants he was carefully leaping over them .

The same hunter who formely was ruthlessly killing animals is now not willing to even hurt a single ant, this is the power of association of a sadhu .

In order to make tangible spiritual advancement therefore it is of utmost importance that one regularly associates and hears from Sadhus. This is the very reason why Srila Prabhupada took so much pain to open you various centers all over the world to give everyone chance to associate with devotees and make their lives successful.

This age of Kali is characterized by hypocrisy and quarrel, we find this almost everywhere , between nations, societies, within the family and even between different religious groups, in such an atmosphere it is very difficult to find a real sadhu and associate with them to purify ourselves. Having said that this should be a impetus for us to look for real sadhu's associations even more than before. Instead people use this as an excuse to remain in darkness .

If one's life is in danger due to a terminal disease one will make every attempt to find a suitable doctor who can treat him and save him. Even though many doctors promise , not every doctor is successful or truly interested .Similarly we the soul are in a very precarious condition , with todays modern lifestyle everywhere we go we find the agents of Kali freely providing their association, however if we want to save ourselves it is a necessity for us to seek out that association of the sadhus who can save us from this danger. Just like there are many fake currencies in the market , however, by guidelines issues by the Government one can identify the fake from the real. Similarly using the guidelines from the Vedic scriptures one can identify fake sadhus from the real ones.

There are two kinds of Association that one can get Vapuh and vani . Vapuh stands for physical association of sadhus , which means to be in the proximity of the sadhus in their service like servant or assistants . Another association is that of vani, that is associating with the words of a sadhu. Acharya proclaim that associating with the vani of great souls is more important and effective , since vapuh association is not possible for everyone , however if one takes to heart the words of a sadhu and applies them in ones life with proper direction from the seniors one is truly associating with sadhus and will see the effect of such association. With the advancement in the technology it is now possible for everyone to associate with the vani of great souls thru recordings and live transmissions.

The point is without the proper association of real sadhus , it is impossible to make any spiritual advancement and one will be stuck in the turmoil of this material world.

Bound by Golden Chain

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:32:00 +0000

" What is the use of wasting so much time after God, just do good to people, perform pious acts and you do not need God "

The above phrase depicts the mentality of general populace, this is what many devotees have to hear from the general people when they see devotees practicing devotional service , by chanting , dancing , and giving their lives for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna . People in general thing of religiosity as an act of piety by which one may go to heaven and enjoy .However the Ancient scriptures from India like the Srimad Bhagavatam define this kind of religion to the cheating religion , kaitava dharma. Since as per the Vedas real religion means to surrender to GOD in devotion , in other words render loving devotional service to GOD fro HIS Pleasure , in turn the individual living entities who are parts and parcels of that Supreme Being become blissful automatically , just like watering the root of the tree provides nourishment to individual leaves and branches of the tree. However in todays day and age it has become difficult to understand or even know this essence of religion, because almost all the religions of the world today have deviated from this principle and now the common man thinks of religion to be only a means of earning piety and achieving more better material comforts in heaven . Religion is not a kind of faith as mentioned in dictionaries today , faith can be changed , Religion or Dharma as translated in Sanskrit means occupation, like the dharma or occupation of sugar is to be sweet, similarly Dharma or Religion or occupation of a living entity is to be eternal servitor of the Supreme Lord. Vedas describe the Supreme Being to be Sat- Cit- Ananda, which means, eternal, full of knowledge and blissful , being his fragmental parts and parcels, us the living entities are also Sat- cit- ananda . So the questions is then why dont we feel so? The reason being because of our material desires to lord it over the material nature and become controllers, we are trapped in the material energy of the lord which is exactly opposite in nature to that of the spiritual nature , which means it is asat, temporary , acit, full of ignorance and nirananda, full of misery . We have been trapped in this material energy for many many lifetimes hence we are not able to perceive our real identity as spiritual spark .

Having said this, the notion that we may only act piously only and need not bother about religion is just another way of getting bound up in this material energy , only with a goldern chain . As explained above, we are eternal spiritual sparks, who are above the duality of pain and pleasure, pious or impious acts, since we are in this material world and have this material body we are subject to these dualities, and we perceive everything as right or wrong. It is certainly good to act piously however there is a higher principle that human life is meant for and that is devotional service or Bhakti. Pious acts will direct you to our ultimate goal , they are not the end in themselves. If we simply act piously then we will have to come back to this material world to reap the benefits of those activities hence only by acting piously we are just binding ourselves with a golden chain instead of an iron chain . The problem is not of the chain , the problem is that we are bound , hence either we are bound by a golden chain or iron chain, we are still bound . As in this human form of life we need to inquire on the higher principle on how to get released from this bondage. How do I get beyond this dualities of piety and impiety? How to become reinstated in our original spiritual identity and act according to that ? How to free myself from the repitition of birth and death ? These are the questions that need to be answered.

Fortunately in this age of Kali , the solution is simple as compared to other ages, Simply by Chanting the holy names of the Lord Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, we can understand all these questions and free ourselves from the bondage of either Golden or Iron chain , which means we can transcend both pious and impious activities and become blissful in this life and Go back home Back to Godhead in the next life.

Living with the Enemy

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 22:19:00 +0000

Just think about living your whole life with someone whom you do not like. It is a scary thought isn't it , what to speak of living with an enemy , people would prefer not to live instead of living with a enemy . Based on Our consciousness and our natural inclinations we create friends and enemies in this world. People who agree with our propositions and thoughts are our dear most friends , and those who do not accept our ways tend to become our enemies. Many times friends turn into enemies and enemies seem to become friendly . All these things are difficult to figure out , who is our friend and who is our enemy?

Bhagavad Gita, the ancient science Spoken by Lord Sri Krsna , The Supreme Personality of Godhead, clarifies all the confusion and provides us with clear transcendental intelligence to discriminate who are friend really is and whom we should be cautious of . On the battle field of Kurukshetra Arjuna was in a similar dilemma,when his cousins were standing on the opposite side as enemies to kill him and his brothers. It is in this state of confusion Arjuna instead of using his confused intelligence to resolve the confusion , turned to his eternal friend and guide Lord Sri Krsna to find out an answer, Entire Bhagavad Gita as then Spoken by Lord Krsna to relieve his friend of this dilemma, and put him back on track of righteousness.

As mentioned before , living with someone whom you do not like could be a night mare , what to speak of living with your enemies for life. Yet most of the people today not only live with their enemies , but trust is completely and follow the orders of their enemy and amazing thing is all of us thing that we are all independent. This is called maya the illusory energy of the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna . The enemy I am referring to here is our uncontrolled mind and senses. In fact there is no enemy or friend outside of our mind, mind is the one who dictates one to see someone as an enemy or a friend, and since from time immemorial we are accustomed to obeying the orders of the mind, we cannot even detect that we are under the control of our mind. In Bhagavad Gita Sri Krsna explains,

uddhared ätmanätmänaà

nätmänam avasädayet

ätmaiva hy ätmano bandhur

ätmaiva ripur ätmanaù [ Bg. 6.5 ]

"One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well."

The very next verse from the 6th Chapter Krsna explains how the mind could be ones friend or enemy

bandhur ätmätmanas tasya
yenätmaivätmanä jitaù
anätmanas tu çatrutve
vartetätmaiva çatru-vat [ Bg 6.6]

"For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy."

So from the above mentioned verses, it is quite evident that our uncontrolled mind is the one which makes friends and enemies in this material world. For one who has controlled his mind , the mind is a friend and hence he sees that actually nobody is my enemy, however for one who is unable to control his/ her mind and obeys the orders of ones mind for them mind remains a enemy and hence they would find faults in even the most friendly person.

Krsna also mentions in Bhagavad Gita that for one who has controlled his mind, the Supersoul is already reached. Supersoul or Paramatma, is the partial expansion of Krsna who lives in every one's heart and is the witness to every living entities activities, every desire or activity of any living entity becomes a success only when it is sanctioned by the Supersoul. As per the vedic scriptures, one who has attained the Supersoul becomes blissful , Realization of the Supersoul is the ultimate goal of the mystic yogis who perform severe austerities for years .

jitätmanaù praçäntasya
paramätmä samähitaù
çétoñëa-sukha-duùkheñu
tathä mänäpamänayoù [ Bg. 6.7 ]

"For one who has conquered the mind, the Supersoul is already reached, for he has attained tranquillity. To such a man happiness and distress, heat and cold, honor and dishonor are all the same."

One who controls the mind, he becomes equipoised in the dualities of this world, for him happiness , distress, heat and cold ,etc are all same.

Unfortunately the civilization and the age we live in practically whole of the population is unaware of this knowledge hence are suffering with the miseries posed by the uncontrolled mind. Constantly flowing in the ocean of material dualities, people have accepted this as a way of life and do not even want to inquire about the transcendental state of happiness . For transcending these dualities is the duty of this human form . The nature of the soul as stated by the Vedic Scriptures is Sat -Cit - Ananda, which means it is eternal, Full of knowledge and completely blissful. It is practically impossible to control the mind with the methods of meditation in this Age of Kali, since there are too many disturbances in this age which makes the mind very turbulent. Every living entity at every step of life is overwhelmed with dualities of life which makes it impossible for controlling the mind which is more turbulent then the raging wind as stated by Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita [Bg.6.33 and 6.34]

Looking at the degraded condition of life in this Age of Kali, Lord has given concessions to the people in this Age of Kali, which was not available to people of previous ages. Sukadeva Goswami Mentions this to Pariksit Maharaja,

kaler doña-nidhe räjann
asti hy eko mahän guëaù
kértanäd eva kåñëasya
mukta-saìgaù paraà vrajet [ S.B. 12.3.51]

Simply by chanting the holy names of the Lord with a sincere heart one can become free from these dualities and would be able to control the mind and transform an enemy into a friend. Only by Chanting Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare one will be able to live happily in this world in any situation and become liberated at the end of his life to reside in the Supreme Abode of Lord Sri Krsna. So why should one suffer the dualities of this life and get tossed between happiness and distress, pleasure and pain, why should one become a servant of our uncontrolled mind and live in captivity of our enemy thinking ourselves to be free. Taking to the process of chanting holy names of the Lord is sweet and enjoyable requiring no special yogic postures or going to the Himalayas to perform austerities. As Srila Prabhupada used to instruct his disciples , Chant and be happy .

Delicious Sins

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:58:00 +0000

Delicious Sins, this phrase sounds very ironic. How can sins be Delicious, they are supposed to be bad and full of misery and suffering. What we as human beings perceive as sins and what sins actually are based on the scriptures are two different things. In the modern world , sins are become more personalized, more often than not we hear the phrases, "Oh this could be sin in your religion , for our religion is it not considered as sin" or " Sins or no sin is good as far as on thinks like that , its all in the mind". It seems that everybody has his philosophy of life, however foolish he or she may be, but they follow their own concocted philosophy. Although the free will provided by Krsna ( God) to every living entity allows one to have his or her own philosophy and idea or concept of what is sin and what is not sin, but whether such an idea is in compliance with the scriptural evidence or not, that is often not verified, hence people misunderstand and have to pay for those sins which they carried out in ignorance. Some may argue that sins carried out in ignorance should not be punished, but just like if a child in ignorance touches the fire, fire still burns the child, similarly if one commits all kinds of sinful activity in ignorance of scriptural teachings he or she is still liable for punishment. In short ignorance is no excuse, since if a person so desires there are many avenues to learn and understand,the things as they are.

One such sin which everyone of us commit in ignorance is related to eating food hence the name Delicious Sins.. Although it sounds astonishing that how come eating food be sinful , since everyone tends to think that all the food in the world is meant for human consumption. To some extend many can understand even though they may not agree, that meat eating involves cruel killing of animals which according to Vedic literature is sin, since we are taking life of a living entity to satisfy our tongues. Not only meat eating but even eating vegetables, fruits, grains, etc which are obtained from the plants are also sinful, since that also involves killing of living entities, even though killing of plants and killing of animals are not at the same level, still it imposes a minor sin on part of the person eating vegetables etc. Material nature is designed in this way that one will not be able to escape sin and its sinful reaction, since the law of this material nature is that one living entity is food for another, jivo jivasya jivanam. So how is that one can be freed from these sinful reactions, since without being sinless it is not possible to be liberated from this material entanglement and Go back home back to Godhead.

Sri Krsna solves this apparent contradiction , when he instructs Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita , that persons who perform sacrifice and take the remnants of the food offered in Sacrifice for the satisfaction of Lord Vishnu are freed from all the sins. Following two verses establish the necessity of performing yagna or sacrifice and consequences of not doing so.

"In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Visnu, and blessed them by saying, "Be thou happy by this yajna [sacrifice] because its performance will bestow upon you everything desirable for living happily and achieving liberation." [ B.g. 3.10]

Also the following Bhagavad Gita Verse explains the glory of getting relieved of sins by offering food stuff in sacrifice to Vishnu.

yajïa-çiñöäçinaù santo
mucyante sarva-kilbiñaiù
bhuïjate te tv aghaà päpä
ye pacanty ätma-käraëät [ B.G. 3.13]

"The devotees of the Lord are released from all kinds of sins because they eat food which is offered first for sacrifice. Others, who prepare food for personal sense enjoyment, verily eat only sin."

Now one may argue that it sounds logical and we may agree to offer food stuff in sacrifice to Lord Vishnu and take his remnants to get freed from sin, but why there is restriction for eating only vegetables and not meat. Like vegetables it is possible to offer meat to the Lord and it will be purified and then it can be taken as prasadam what is wrong there . The answer to this is also given by Lord Krsna when he specifically mentions how and what food should be offered.

patraà puñpaà phalaà toyaà
yo me bhaktyä prayacchati
tad ahaà bhakty-upahåtam
açnämi prayatätmanaù
[ B.g. 9.26]

"If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it."

Lord Krsna in this verse specifically mentions that the he accepts foodstuff from family of leaf, flower, fruit and water, which means in general vegetables, grains etc, he has not mentioned anything related to meat. Moreover he mentions that only when one offers him these simple food stuffs with Love and Devotion ,he accepts them, otherwise gorgeous preparations of foodstuff prepared without love and devotion are not accepted by the Lord.

There is a nice story in Mahabharata which expalins the nature of the Lord and proves as a evidence to the statements of Lord Krsna from Bhagavad Gita. Once Lord Krsna visited Hastinapura to visit Pandavas and other relatives. During that time, Duryodhana and Sakuni has some ulterior motives and wanted to Please Lord Krsna to get some favors from him, in general they did not like Lord Krsna , but since they wanted his favor they had prepared a massive feast for Him with a variety of preparations all very tasty and delicious. On the other hand Vidura who was a minister in the court offered lord Krsna some simple fruits with great devotion and love without wanting anything in return , just to please the Lord for his Pleasure. Lord was overwhelmed by Viduras devotion and accepted those simple offerings and did not even touch the offering made by Duryodana , knowing his intent.

So it is evident that any person who want to be free from eating sins should offer whatever he can with love and devotion to the lord and then partake of his remnants as prasadam which will certainly purify and elevate the soul to spiritual understanding leading them closer to Love of Godhead. Though in this age of Kali yuga , people generally do not believe in these evidences , since most of the people are after enjoying the senses to the fullest, nevertheless the laws of material nature do not change and one has to suffer the sinful reactions. The laws of nature are working at a very subtle level and nobody in this mortal world has the power to change them. So knowing all this why should we become victims to such sinful reactions, a wise man will take necessary steps to rectify the sins after getting this knowledge. It is best to prepare food in goodness and offer this simple food to Lord Krsna and be satisfied with the prasadam of the lord. We have seen practically people who follow this practice develop such a love for Prasadam that they then do not even look at the ordinary foodstuff. Just like if one develops a higher taste for a sweet meat , one can give up eating chipped rice. This simple process of cooking simple food and offering to Lord Krsna will rid on of the "Delicious Sins" and will elevate one slowly but steadily to achieve the spiritual enlightenment which will ultimately rid one of all miseries in life

Why Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:08:00 +0000

In todays environment when every religion of the world is sort of marketing their ways and methods of worship and presenting different Gods, it has already become a confusing matter on who God is and out of so many Gods who is the Supreme?. Due to this many people have decided not to pursue this subject matter and some even worse have become atheist and non believers. It is true that everyone is presenting their own God and professing their own methods. But the cause of confusion is not that so many people are presenting so many things, the cause of confusion lies within us, it is our lack of knowledge and to be more specific it is the lack in our intention to gain this knowledge. The nature of the mind is to follow what everyone is following since it is easy and comfortable, but we tend to not use our intelligence to question whether what all are following is correct ? This post is not to present one more God to the world, but to emphasize that there is only one GOD and that is Krsna- The Supreme Personality of Godhead.

His Divine Grace A.C. BhaktiVedanta Swami, Srila Prabhupada, Founder Acharya of International Soceity for Krsna Consciouness, Specifically used This phrase " The Supreme Personality of Godhead" while describing Krsna, this was to emphatically declare that Krsna is the Supreme Person and he has a Personality i.e. to say that he is not impersonal. Now he gave many logically and scriptural reasons to support this statement, which I will attempt to write in this post.

In Bhagavad Gita 7th Chapter 7th Verse , Lord Krsna Himself declares this Truth to Arjuna

mattaḥ parataraḿ nānyat
kiñcid asti dhanañjaya
mayi sarvam idaḿ protaḿ
sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva

" O conqueror of wealth, there is no truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread."

Lord Krsna Himself is saying this to Arjuna, if one is intelligent enough to accept this statement and follow the instructions of Bhagavad Gita As it is , then that person will attain the perfection of life, but since we are in Kali yuga which is called a age of disagreement, most of us do not believe in this statement made by Krsna. Our minds immediately starts speculating, Should i just believe this only because Krsna is saying ?, to refute this argument Arjuna who is a top cultured warrior following all Vedic regulations, he declares his conclusion after realizing this in the 10th Chapter of Bhagavad Gita as follows

arjuna uvāca

paraḿ brahma paraḿ dhāma

pavitraḿ paramaḿ bhavān

puruṣaḿ śāśvataḿ divyam

ādi-devam ajaḿ vibhum

āhus tvām ṛṣayaḥ sarve

devarṣir nāradas tathā

asito devalo vyāsaḥ

svayaḿ caiva bravīṣi me

"Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate abode, the purest, the Absolute Truth. You are the eternal, transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest. All the great sages such as Nārada, Asita, Devala and Vyāsa confirm this truth about You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me."

Now question may be raised that Arjuna was a friend of Krsna and that is why he was saying this to Krsna out of love and attachment, but to confirm the authority of the statement he further quotes that even the great sages like, Narada, Asita, Devala and Vyasa have accepted you as the Supreme Person , in today context we find many great sages from India like Ramanujacharya, Madhavacarya, Caitanya Mahaprabhu , Nimarka, Vallabhacharya, all have accepted Lord Krsna or Lord Vishnu as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Even Lord Brahma who is the creator of this universe he mentions the position of Krsna in his Brahma Samhita which was spoke by him after his realization at the mature state of devotional service.

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ

sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ

anādir ādir govindaḥ

sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam [ Brahma Samhita 5.1]

"Kṛṣṇa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes"

Parasara Muni who is the father of Vysadeva, he has given a definition of God, he says one who possesses all six opulences in full i.e. one who possesses all the riches, all the strength , all the fame, all the beauty, all the renunciation and all the intelligence, that person is called as Supreme Godhead. From the pastimes of Krsna and from the scriptures we can find when Krsna was here He displayed each of these opulences in full, nobody could equal or surpass Him in any of these opulences. He was the proprietor of the most beautiful and opulent Dwarka with 16108 palaces for his queens, He was challenged by so many demoniac forces since his childhood, but nobody could kill Him, Bhagavad Gita which was spoken by Krsna is read by all the people all over the world, there is no literature found in the world as compared to Bhagavad Gita in the intellectual wealth and wisdom , In his incarnation of Lord Rama he left the kingdom without any hesitation on the order of his father displaying his opulence of supreme renunciation, and in beauty there was no one comparable to Him during that time as known from the scriptures.

There is a very instructive story as narrated by Srila Prabhupada to explain that how logically also we find Krsna to be the Supreme Person. One German Philosopher hearing about the spiritual heritage of India, went to India to investigate who is God. So in his quest he met many yogis , swamis, he went to many temples in India, he went to Shiva Temple, Durga Temple, he went to other temples of Demigods and then finally he went to Krsna's temple. At that moment when he saw the form of the Lord playing his Flute , he concluded that this must be the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So one of the devotees from the temple, asked him, that how did he come to this conclusion ? So the philosopher replied, I have been wandering in India for many years going to various temples , I went to Shiva Temple he was holding a Trishul and meditating, I went to Durga Temple , I saw she was also holding a sword , similarly I went to every temple , but saw that the deity at the temple was engaged in some or the other kind of work , but when I saw the deity of Krsna i saw that he was very blissfully standing and playing his Flute with Radharani besides Him. So I understand that this must be the Supreme Personality of Godhead from who all the other demigods are working , since he is engaged in blissfully playing and doing no work. The analogy is the one who is the proprietor of everything he hasnt got to work, even in practical life we see that if someone is very rich , he has many servants to handle his work and he has nothing to do , but enjoy.

In all the faiths of the world the same God is mentioned, Some call him Krsna which meana All Attractive, some call him Allah, All powerful and some call him Chirst the saviour. From the point of view of Vaisnava philosophy they all are referring to Krsna. Just like I may be father to my child, husband for my wife and others may call me with my name, but I as a person do not change, even though I am called with different names. It is the duty of human life to understand the Absolute Truth and love Him, but if we are not even sure who that Absolute Truth is how can we love Him ? It is required that people take the initiative and inquire seriously in these important topics and try to find the Truth.

The Age that we are living in is called the Age of Quarrel or Age of Disagreement , scriptures mention that in this age people will be ready to kill each other at slightest provocations and there will be total anarchy, in such difficult times it will be very difficult to understand the purpose of life and to understand God. In such dark times there is one ray of hope , as per the scriptures by in this age of Kali even though it is tainted with so many faults one who sincerely and with a pure heart chants the holy names of God Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, will attain all perfection and will be liberated .

kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann
asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ
kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya
mukta-sańgaḥ paraḿ vrajet

"My dear King, although Kali-yuga is an ocean of faults, there is still one good quality about this age: Simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, one can become free from material bondage and be promoted to the transcendental kingdom."

Security ...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:31:00 +0000

Security is one of the most important aspects in human nature. Everyone is looking for some Security in terms of job, permanent place, feeling safe in an environment etc. Nobody wants to be un secure and always wanting to be in danger. This aspect of security is natural to a living soul as we are parts and parcels of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and hence our nature is to be eternal. Question of Security comes into picture when we are afraid that what we have will be lost or when we have an experience of such a thing where something dear was lost. For example the body, if someone threatens to harm or kill the body we become very much on guard and try to take all the measures to secure it from harm, since everyone loves his or her body. Similarly when there seems to be some danger to the near and dear ones with whom we associate on daily basis, we become morose and try to protect them.

As per the Vedic literatures, this feeling of fearfulness and this thought of protecting against this fear i.e. security is mainly because of our false identification with the body. From the Vedic literature, especially Bhagavad-Gita we get the information that every living entity is a spirit soul, eternal, full of knowledge and always enjoying by constitution. It is due to our contact with the material energy which is temporary, full of ignorance and always miserable; we have this feeling of fearfulness and with this experience going on from ages we worry about security. Everyone has experience that material things are taken away which cause pain and that fear of that pain causes us to act in so many ways by which we try to adjust things around us so that we can feel secured in every sense. From practical experience everyone knows that this never happens. One may have a feeling of security for some time, but that fear of loosing always remains. Since we are identifying with a temporary body which is perishable, we always have fear of loosing it, and in order to free ourselves from this fear we create an association around us of friends, relatives etc, and feel secure in their company. This is called illusion or maya as per the Vedic literatures. Since we are creating a field of illusion around us by thinking that our friends, family etc will help us from the fear of loosing our body or the things which we most cherish. It is like, one blind man takes the help of another blind man to cross the road and he thinks that he is going in the right direction. This is exactly what we are doing; all the people around us are identifying with the temporary material body and fearing. With the company of other such people we can feel secured falsely for a while but that illusion will soon be broken in the form death either our death or death of near and dear ones.

Vedic Literature instructs the living entity to wake up from this ignorance, tamaso ma jyotir gamaya and move towards enlightenment. Enlightenment means knowing what we are and what is the purpose of our existence in this temporary material realm, knowledge about the difference between matter and spirit and ultimately knowing our constitutional position with respect to the Supreme Spirit. Knowledge and practical application of all the above mentioned things will free a living entity from the false conception of the body and will take him to a stage of spiritual understanding. With this spiritual understanding, one will not fall into false attachments in this material world and will not “hope against hope” to find answers to his or her miseries. Only security for a living entity in this material world is to come to the stage of self realization and identify its relation with the Supreme Soul and act in that relationship, since that is the original nature of the soul. Due to our forgetfulness of this relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna we are always fearful and trying to adjust material things in the name of security , which will only lead to more frustrations, since the platform ( i.e. material body) on which we are trying to adjust things itself is wrong. In this age of Kali Vedas recommend only one way to achieve this knowledge and feel eternally secure, i.e. chanting the holy names of the Lord, Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. So please chant and be happy.

Dream World

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:44:00 +0000

With the advancement of the ages, human consciousness had changed too. It is believed that today modern society has advanced far more than the ancient civilization. With more technology and equipments available at disposal, everything has become fast paced and instant. Material science has achieved a lot of progress than the yester years. This progress is thought of as an advancement in Civilization and is looked upon as a great achievement by the society. Today any nation, not using the latest technology is considered underdeveloped . Most certainly materially passionate human endeavors has led to many inventions, for helping and accelerating the way things are done, which certainly is commendable, and this is possible for a human being to achieve since human beings posses higher intelligence than any other species of life on this planet.

Although we have made lot of material progress, from the Vedic literatures, we get the information that human intelligence should not be used only for material progress, since the prime occupation of a human being is to Enquire about the Absolute Truth. This is completely contradictory to the modern idea of advancement. Advancement as per Vedic text means advancing in spiritual consciousness. Materially one must endeavor to a point where one is able to comfortably maintain the body and soul together.

Reflecting on the Vedic thought, it is very natural for a reader today to immediately shun from this idea and not believe in the Vedic literature right away, since the 99% of populace do not consider Vedic thought or do not have the information . Every one today is tuned in with the modern thinking and modern way of living . Everyone is working hard to compete with other to increase the modern facilities of life to enjoy this lifetime to the fullest. Nevertheless, people who have studies the Vedic literature in depth and tried to follow its examples, have found that a profound truth lies in these literatures. When studied with the right perspective and under the guidance of a bonafide spiritual teacher it makes a lot of sense and has a life changing affect on the person who studies it. Vedic literatures are called as apaurushya, which means these teachings are coming in disciplic succession from the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna Himself, since Lord Krsna is beyond this material creation , he is not subject to four kinds of defects which a ordinary human being is subject to namely one makes mistakes, one has a tendency to cheat, one has imperfect senses and one is illusioned. So the knowledge flowing in this disciplic succession is perfect and even though we may not understand or believe it right away owing to our four defects, the knowledge is perfect and sublime.

So accepting that Vedic knowledge is perfect, if one compares the modern thinking of advancement, one will conclude that this is not the purpose of life. As mentioned above, the purpose of life as per the Vedic Civilization is not to work hard day and night only for material advancement, but it is to make spiritual advancement by understanding who we are, what is the Absolute Truth, Who is God ,What is our relationship with God etc. If one is not interested in these topics one is certainly living in a dream world, full of illusions which is called Maya ( or that which is not). From practical point of view, we see that most of the people today have created a world around themselves, where that person tries to be the center in every aspect. Some people feel safe in a group of friends who praise and respect them, that is their dream bubble , always trying to live life in terms of that . Some people think of their family as their world, for some the colleagues at work are everything . Everyone is thinking in terms of their surroundings and living in a relative truth. This as per the Vedic thought is Maya ( which is not) or illusion. Since we all are spirit souls and part and parcel of one Almighty Lord . Our constitutional position is to be the servant of Krsna. If we forget what our original constitutional position is and act in a way which we are not that certainly is like dreaming. Since just like in a dream, we may become a king of a country and become very happy for the moment, until we are awake again, Similarly when s person is unable to identify its real identity he or she is living in a dream world.

As per Bhagavad Gita, we are not the bodies but are eternal spiritual sparks, part and parcel of God. We are meant to serve God and enjoy with him in that relation. This service to God is not based on the material conception of service, it is based on Love and not lust. Bhagavad Gita informs us that only when we realize our true nature, it is then only we will be able to become peaceful and happy. Now all this information is new and revolutionary to the modern thinkers, since it is very difficult to see these things with gross senses, but there are many things which can be perceived and need not be seen to realize their existence. For eg, wind , air, mind, intelligence,all are perceived , these things have no tangible form, yet one can understand that everyone has got a mind and intelligence or when there is a air blowingetc . Similarly in order to perceive the existence of soul Sri Krsna gives a example in the Bhagavad Gita,

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraḿ yauvanaḿ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati [ B.g. 2. 13]

" As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change."

He furhter mentions
avināśi tu tad viddhi
yena sarvam idaḿ tatam
vināśam avyayasyāsya
na kaścit kartum arhati [ B.g. 2.17]

"That which pervades the entire body you should know to be indestructible. No one is able to destroy that imperishable soul."

For an intelligent person these descriptions are more than enough to realize that the consciousness in the body is the symptom of the presence of soul. So if we are the eternal spirit souls, meant to serve the lord, it is evident that we are not the center or the enjoyer or the proprietor in any way . When one fully realizes that the only enjoyer, proprietor is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna , it should be understood that that person has set foot into the real world and is beginning to awaken from the dream bubble.

One may wonder as to what is the use or necessity of understanding God , since even if I am living in my dream world, I am happy within my world of friends, family , society etc. It should be understood that the nature of this world is temporary and full of miseries, so even if by influence of Maya one is convinced that he is happy, sooner or later this reality will dawn him or her that this place is not a happy place. It is generally seen, that people become disturbed , depressed and sometimes even commit suicide when their dream bubble bursts when for eg their loved ones leave them or betray them etc. In this condition they start blaming God for their miseries. But one forgets that God has already warned us through scriptures and his devotees that material world is full of miseries and temporary. For our original position is with Him ( God) in loving devotional service.

This chance of human form is very rare, only after 8400000 life forms one gets this intelligence , by which he or she can inquire about the Absolute Truth and become eternally happy without anxieties and miseries. It is very essential that every one should take this opportunity and burst their dream bubble themselves to realize the Real Truth, rather than waiting for the nature to burst it in a painful way. Easiest way as recommended by all the scriptures of the world especially Srimad Bhagavatam in this age of Kali to understand the Absolute Truth is by chanting the holy names of God, Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Responsibility

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:30:00 +0000

   Responsibility means accountibility, To be responsible means to take the matters seriously and carry out the neccessary actions to accomplish a task. For example, for a manager the responsiblity may mean to manage the employees working under him and get the required work done from them, for a employee responsibilty may mean to deliver his or her work on time and with as much accuracy as possible, for a housewife responsibility may mean to take care of the house and children to bring them up as good individuals etc. Every person involved in these particular roles takes his or her work seriously with accountibility and tries to make it a success. A person who is not responsible is just like animal who does not know what to do and simply wastes the life, that is the verdict of all the religions of the world.

When this idea of Responsiblity is mismanaged or not taken seriouly thing begin to fall apart and create havoc in the society, which is evident in today's modern setup.   As per Vedic culture from India, every society needs to be divided into four scientific divisions for proper functioning of the social order, namely, Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra. Sri Krsna the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself mentions this in Bhagvad Gita, cätur-varëyaà mayä såñöaà guëa-karma-vibhägaçaù [ B.g. 4.13] . Just like for proper fucntioning of a body it is necessary to have head, arms , belly and legs. Head is compared to the Brahamana class, Kshatriya is compared to the arms ,belly is compared to the Vaisya community and legs are compared to the sudra community. In the Eighteenth Chapter of Bhagavad Gita Lord Krsna explicitly mentions the responsibilities of these four divisions of the society. These are called Varnas. which are natural sceintific divisions for the well being and proper functioning of the soceity .Similarly there are for Ashramas namely Brahmacari, Grahasta, Vanaprastha and Sanyasa, these four ashrams are designed for the spiritual upbrining of the living entity.

    This Varnashram system of Vedic civilization as created by the Lord , was specifically desiged to help a human being to progress towards self realization and ultimately attain the highest goal of life, which is Love of Godhead. So it is the respoinsibility of human beings to follow this system and make their lives perfect. Human form of life is endowed with the necessary inteeligence and the mecahnism which can follow this system. Animals are not able to follow the specific rules and regulations of a Varnasharm system . It is important for a human beings to understand the responsibility of this human form of life. Human form of life is obtained after 8400000 species of life forms and is extermely rare as per the Vedic scriptures. It is the responsibility of the living entity in this human form of life to enquire about the Brahman. The First injunction of Vedanta Sutra says Athato Brahma Jijnasa   which means Now Enquie about Brahman or God, since you have the human form of life and you can now read and understand , so now enquire about God. The responsibilty of human beings in not just limited to working hard and providing for the family and using all the money for sense gratification , but rather it has a higher purpose to Inquire about the Absolute Truth and our relation with Him.

Unfortunately in today's misguided civilization people are only busy in eating , sleeping, mating and defending. Human beings are engaged in what is called ugra karma or very strenous jobs with no time left for Brahman Jijnasa or enquiring about God, which is the prime responsibility of the Human beings. Human body is the only gateway through which one can release one self from the repeated cycle of birth, death , old age and disease, but due to our gross ignorance human beings today are engaged in less important works trying to adjust the situation in this world to become comfortable , and considering them to be their responsibilities. Instead of trying to engage in activities in a God Conscious manner, today the human energy is being utlized to advance economically, which has left human being in a state of constant anxiety with the economic crisis and sterssful lifesytle, with so much distrubance it is very difficult for any person to find time for enquiring about God. In order to get basic neccessity of life a human being now a days have to struggle and work hard day and night, which was not the case a few years ago. The solution to this chaos and confusion lies in living simply to only accept things which are neccessary to ones sustenance and save time for the main Responsiblity of Human form of Life that is Brahman Jijnasa or Enquring about the Absolute Truth.

Truth and Beauty are Compatible

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 01:54:00 +0000

Hare Krishna,
A nice article

By A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead Magazine #15,1967

It has often been argued whether truth and beauty are terms compatible with one another. One would agree willingly, some say, to express the truth, but since truth is not always beautiful—indeed it is frequently rather startling and unpleasant—how is one to express truth and beauty at the same time?

In reply to this we may inform all concerned that Truth and Beauty are indeed compatible terms. Truth which is Absolute is always beautiful. It is so beautiful that it attracts everyone, including itself. Truth is so beautiful that many sages, saints and devotees have left everything for its sake. Mahatma Gandhi, the idol of the modern world, dedicated his life for experimenting with Truth, and all his activities were targetted towards Truth only.

Why Mahatma Gandhi?—every one of us is drawn by an urge towards Truth, because it is not only beautiful, but possesses all power, all resources, all fame, all renunciation and all knowledge as well.

Unfortunately, people have no information of the actual Truth, and 99.9 per cent of men in all ranks of life are following the principles of Untruth in the name of Truth and its quest. We are actually attracted with the beauty of Truth, but we are, since time immemorial, habituated to love untruth in the name of Truth. And therefore, to the mundane thinker, Truth and Beauty are incompatible terms.

Mundane Truth and beauty are explained as follows:

A man fell in love with a beautiful girl. He was very powerful and strongly built, but his character was doubtful. The girl, meanwhile, was not only beautiful in appearance, but also saintly in character. As such the beautiful girl did not like the proposal of the powerful man. The powerful man, however, insisted upon his lustful desires, whereupon the beautiful girl requested the man to wait for only seven days and after that she fixed up a time when they could meet. The strong man agreed, and with high expectations began to count the hours, waiting for the moment when he was fixed to meet the girl.

The saintly girl, however, in order to manifest the real beauty of relative Truth, adopted a means which is very instructive: She took a very strong dose of purgative medicine, and for seven days continually she passed loose stool and vomitted all that she ate. All the loose stool and the vomit she stored up in suitable reservoirs. As a result of this laxative medicine, the so-called beautiful girl became lean, thin as a skeleton, and turned gloomy of complexion, with her beautiful eyes pushed into the socket of the skull.

At the appointed hour, she was waiting anxiously to receive the man in love.

The man appeared on the scene well-dressed and well-behaved, and asked the waiting girl, who was depressed in appearance, about the beautiful girl who had called him there. The man could not recognize the waiting girl, as the same beauty whom he was asking for. The girl was in a pitiable condition, and the foolish man, in spite of repeated assertions, could not recognise her. All due to the action of the medicine.

At last the girl told the powerful man the story of her beauty, that she had separated the ingredients of beauty, and stored them up in the reservoirs. She told him that he could have and enjoy the juices of beauty stored up in these reservoirs if he wanted them. The man agreed to see the juices of beauty, and thus he was directed to the store of loose stool and liquid vomit, which were emanating unbearable odors. Thus the whole story of the liquid beauty was disclosed to him. The characterless man, by the grace of the saintly girl, was now able to distinguish between the shadow and the substance, and thus he came to his senses.

That is the real position of every one of us who are attracted by false material beauty. The girl above-mentioned developed a beautiful material body as she desired in her mind, but she was actually apart from that temporary material manifestation of body and mind. She is in fact a spiritual spark, and so also is the man in love, who was attracted by the false skin of the girl.

Many great thinkers, poets, artists and people in general, are deluded by the outward beauty and attraction of the relative truth, and are unaware of the spiritual spark which is both Truth and Beauty at one and the same time. The spiritual spark is so beautiful that on its leaving the body no one any longer wishes to touch it, even though the body may be decorated with the most costly jewels.

And because we are all after a false, relative truth, we find it to be incompatible with real beauty. The truth is so permanently beautiful that it maintains the same standard of beauty as it is for millions upon millions of years. Besides that, the spiritual spark is indestructible. The beauty of the outer skin can be destroyed in a few hours time by one small dose of strong purgative, but the beauty of Truth is always the same, and is indestructible just as it is. Unfortunately, mundane writers are ignorant of the beautiful sparks of spirit, as well as of the fiery resources of these spiritual sparks and their interrelations of transcendental pastimes.

When these pastimes are displayed here by the Grace of the Almighty, the foolish persons who cannot see beyond the gross senses mistake such pastimes of Truth and Beauty as being within the same field as the store of loose stools and liquid vomit. Thus they come to despair, and then declare that Truth and beauty cannot be accommodated at one and the same time.

The mundane thinkers do not know that the Whole Spiritual Entity is the beautiful Person attracting everything as the Prime Substance, the Prime Source and the Fountainhead of everything that be. And the infinitesimal spiritual sparks, as parts and parcels of the Whole Spirit, are qualitatively the same—beautiful and eternal entities. The difference is that the Whole is eternally the Whole, and the parts are eternally the parts. Both of them are the Ultimate Truth, Ultimate Beauty, Ultimate Knowledge, Ultimate Energy, Ultimate Renunciation and Ultimate Opulence.

Any literature which does not describe such Ultimate Truth and Beauty is a store of loose stools and liquid vomit of the relative truth. Real literature is that which describes this Ultimate Truth and Beauty

Recognize the Cause not the Instrument

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 24 May 2011 15:12:00 +0000

It is certainly good to recognize and appreciate people for their efforts and good work. It goes a long way in encouraging any individual. A small amount of encouragement for the qualities and work performed should be recognized and eulogized. While we give lot of stress on appreciating and encouraging people for their contributions and hard work, often we fail to recognize the actual doer and the cause behind all the achievements. In the Bhagavad Gita Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna instructs Arjuna to Fight as a matter of duty and be an instrument, since the result of the war was already decided and arranged by the Lord

tasmät tvam uttiñöha yaço labhasva

jitvä çatrün bhuìkñva räjyaà samåddham

mayaivaite nihatäù pürvam eva

nimitta-mätraà bhava savya-säcin [ B.g. 11.33]

“Therefore get up. Prepare to fight and win glory. Conquer your enemies and enjoy a flourishing kingdom. They are already put to death by my arrangement, and you, O Savyasäcé, can be but an instrument in the fight.”

In other places in Bhagavad Gita Sri Krsna mentions that as living entities we have the right to perform our duties, but we are not entitled to the fruits of our action, and he warns us that we should not think ourselves to be the cause of our actions.

karmaëy evädhikäras te
mä phaleñu kadäcana

mä karma-phala-hetur bhür

mä te saìgo 'stv akarmaëi

“You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.”

So it is evident as part and parcels of Lord Sri Krsna we are the instruments in the hands of the Lord and if we understand this constitutional position of our existence we will be in peace. In fact in every activity we perform knowingly or unknowingly we are being helped by Lord and /or his Energies. For Example, with the human intelligence, today we are able to create big airplanes which take us from one place to another within hours, the intelligence to build this plane, the energy and the raw materials used are all Krsna’s energies as mentioned in Bhagavad Gita

bhümir äpo 'nalo väyuù

khaà mano buddhir eva ca

ahaìkära itéyaà me

bhinnä prakåtir añöadhä [ B.g. 7.4]

“Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego—all together these eight constitute My separated material energies.”

So the living entities who are parts of his spiritual energy are using these material energies to transform them into a usable form and that much credit we certainly have, that we have become the instruments to create such a nice machine. But if we start claiming that we are the cause of the creation of the aero plane than we are cheating ourselves and incurring sins for stealing God’s property.

It is therefore imperative to always think of ourselves as instruments in the hands of an expert craftsman who can use us in developing magnificent things, just like it will certainly be wrong to praise the saw of a carpenter for making a beautiful closet. Generally we may agree to this fact but we still do not realize it and hence we end up thinking ourselves to be the doer and the cause of all that we do which only increases our false ego and puts us in a gross illusion away from the reality. It should be noted individually and collectively that when people are recognized they should be recognized as instruments in the achievement with the main credit going to the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna. Many people think of this as modesty on part of the person who gives credit to the Lord for the achievements which he is credited for, but it is not our modesty towards Krsna, but it is Krsna’s modesty towards the living entity that, he is giving us the credit for the insignificant service we offer him which he really does not require. As seen from the earlier verse 11.33, Krsna tells Arjuna that you take all the glories and enjoy the Kingdom, since the work has already been done and arranged for. Lord is very merciful to his Devotees and loves to give all the credit to the devotee, and the devotees knowing well that without Krsna nothing can take place and they can just become instruments in his hand want to give all the credit to Krsna. This is the sweet relationship between the Lord and His devotees.

Hence it is very important that when there are achievements of any kind of task instead of becoming falsely egoistic about it we recognize the cause of all the causes Lord Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead. As stated in Brahma Samhita, Lord Krsna is the cause of all causes that we see in this world.

éçvaraù paramaù kåñëaù

sac-cid-änanda-vigrahaù

anädir ädir govindaù

sarva-käraëa-käraëam [ B.s. 5.1]

“Krsna who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.”

So let us all try to understand and realize our positions as servants of Krnsa and try to act as instruments instead falsely pretending to be masters. By realizing and recognizing the real master Lord Sri Krsna, there will be peace as stated in Bhagavad Gita by the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself.

bhoktäraà yajïa-tapasäà

sarva-loka-maheçvaram

suhådaà sarva-bhütänäà

jïätvä mäà çäntim åcchati [ B.g. 5.29]

“A person in full consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate beneficiary of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attains peace from the pangs of material miseries.”

Krsna also mentions that it takes many many births of speculation and austerities for a person to come to the conclusion that Lord Sri Krsna indeed is everything, but by the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and through the grace and valiant efforts of Srila Prabhupada, realizing Godhead has been made easy for this Age of Kali. Simply by chanting the Holy names of the Lord Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare individually and collectively one can realize the Absolute Truth.

Quality of a Pure Devotee : He Does not make Anyone his enemy

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:18:00 +0000

yasyästi bhaktir bhagavaty akiïca sarvair guëais tatra samäsate suräù [ S.B. 5.18.12]

“All the demigods and their exalted qualities, such as religion, knowledge and renunciation, become manifest in the body of one who has developed unalloyed devotion for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Väsudeva.”

There are 26 specific qualities of a pure devotee, which are described in Caitanya Caritamrta. One of these Qualities is that a Pure Devotee of the Lord never quarrels with or makes anyone his enemy.

From the lives of great Devotees like Prahlad Maharaja, Haridas Thakur, Jesus Christ and Srila Prabhupada, we understand, even though they faced insurmountable difficulties and had to undergo innumerable threats to their lives, they never considered anyone their enemy. Srila Prabhupada used to mention in his lectures that a person who becomes a devotee of the Lord will have many enemies, including friends and relatives. Prahlad Maharaja was put into various difficulties by his own father Hiranyakasipu, Haridas Thakur was beaten at 22 market places, Jesus Christ was crucified for preaching Krsna Consciousness and everyone knows how much opposition and trouble Srila Prabhupada had to go through in his life to establish the International society for Krsna Consciousness. In spite of all these difficulties faced by these pure devotees, they never considered anyone their enemies, on the contrary every one of them prayed and worked very hard for the spiritual upliftment of fallen souls.

Vision of a Pure Devotee is that of equality, as mentioned in Bhagavad-Gita, devotee does not look at the body but sees the soul accompanied by the Super soul within every living entity. Owing to this spiritual vision, devotees do not find any difference between, a learned Brahman, an elephant, a dog and dog eater outcast [B.G. 5.18]. Devotees understand that this idea of enmity arises on account of false identification of the soul with the body, which comes about due to the influence of three modes of material nature, based on living entity’s karma and desires. Hence instead of making enemies with people who are inimical towards them, devotees show compassion for the soul and try to deliver them from the influence of three modes of material nature, such is the magnanimity of a pure devotee. Therefore it is said that even a moment’s association with a pure devotee makes one’s life successful.

Lord Krsna mentions in Bhagavad-Gita that he is present in every ones heart, so how can a devotee make anyone his enemy, knowing that Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead is present in every living entity. Based on this understanding a devotee sees everyone’s body to be a temple of Lord Krsna and does not wish to hurt even an ant. Just like iron in association with fire, becomes as good as fire, a devotee by constant association with the Lord develops all the good qualities of the Lord in himself. In this age of Kali the process of associating with the Lord has been made very easy by Lord Himself in his incarnation as Catena Mahaprabhu, Simply by Chanting Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, one can develop all the good qualities of a Pure Devotee.

Patience is trusting Krishna's timing

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 23:53:00 +0000

Hare Krsna,

Once there was a sweeper in a well known temple and he was very sincere and

devoted.

Every time he saw thousands of devotees coming to take darshan of the Lord,

he thought that the Lord is standing all the time and giving darshan and He

must be feeling very tired.

So one day very innocently he asked the Lord whether he can take the place

of the Lord for a day so that the Lord can have some relief and rest.

The Deity of Temple replied, "I do not mind taking a break. I will transform

you like Myself, but you must do one thing. you must just stand here like

Me, smile at everyone and just give benedictions. Do not interfere with

anything and do not say anything. Remember you are the deity and you just

have faith that I have a master plan for everything.

The sweeper agreed to this. The next day the sweeper took the position of

the deity and a rich man came and prayed to the Lord. He offered a nice

donation and prayed that his business should be prosperous. While going, the

rich man inadvertently left his wallet full of money right there. Now the

sweeper in the form of deity could not call him and so he decided to control

himself and keep quiet.

Just then a poor man came and he put one coin in the Hundi and said that it

was all he could afford and he prayed to the Lord that he should continue to

be engaged in the Lord's service. He also said that his family was in dire

need of some basic needs but he left it to the good hands of the Lord to

give some solution. When he opened his eyes, he saw the wallet left by the

rich man. The poor man thanked the Lord for His kindness and took the wallet

very innocently. The sweeper in the form of the Deity could not say anything

and he had to just keep smiling.

At that point a sailor walked in. He prayed for his safe journey as he was

going on a long trip. Just then the rich man came with the police and said

that somebody has stolen his wallet and seeing the sailor there, he asked

the police to arrest him thinking that he might have taken it. Now the

sweeper in the form of Deity wanted to say that the sailor is not the thief

but he could not say so and he became greatly frustrated. The sailor looked

at the Lord and asked why he, an innocent person, is being punished. The

rich man looked at the Lord and thanked Him for finding the thief.

The sweeper in the deity form could no more tolerate and he thought that

even if the real Lord had been here, he would have definitely interfered and

hence he started speaking and said that the sailor is not the thief but it

was the poor man who took away the wallet. The rich man was very thankful as

also the sailor.

In the night, the real Lord came and He asked the sweeper how the day was.

The sweeper said, "I thought it would be easy, but now I know that Your days

are not easy, but I did one good thing." Then he explained the whole episode

to the Lord. The Lord became very upset on hearing this whereas the sweeper

thought the Lord would appreciate him for the good deed done.

The Lord asked, "Why did you not just stick to the plan? You had no faith in

Me. Do you think that I do not understand the hearts of all those who come

here? All the donation which the rich man gave was all stolen money and it

is only a fraction of what he really has and he wants Me to reciprocate

unlimitedly. The single coin offered by the poor man was the last coin he

was having and he gave it to Me out of faith.

The sailor might not have done anything wrong, but if the sailor were to go

in the ship that night he was about to die because of bad weather and

instead if he is arrested he would be in the jail and he would have been

saved form a greater calamity. The wallet should go to the poor man because

he will use it in My service. I was going to reduce the rich man's karma

also by doing this and save the sailor also. But you cancelled everything

because you thought you know My plan and you made your own plans."

Moral:

God has plans and justice for everyone....

We just have to have patience!!!!!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Peace is not absence of conflict, but presence of God whatever the conflict be."

Truth and Beauty are Compatible

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 23:52:00 +0000

Hare Krishna,

A nice article

By A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Back to Godhead Magazine #15,1967

It has often been argued whether truth and beauty are terms compatible with one another. One would agree willingly, some say, to express the truth, but since truth is not always beautiful—indeed it is frequently rather startling and unpleasant—how is one to express truth and beauty at the same time?

In reply to this we may inform all concerned that Truth and Beauty are indeed compatible terms. Truth which is Absolute is always beautiful. It is so beautiful that it attracts everyone, including itself. Truth is so beautiful that many sages, saints and devotees have left everything for its sake. Mahatma Gandhi, the idol of the modern world, dedicated his life for experimenting with Truth, and all his activities were targetted towards Truth only.

Why Mahatma Gandhi?—every one of us is drawn by an urge towards Truth, because it is not only beautiful, but possesses all power, all resources, all fame, all renunciation and all knowledge as well.

Unfortunately, people have no information of the actual Truth, and 99.9 per cent of men in all ranks of life are following the principles of Untruth in the name of Truth and its quest. We are actually attracted with the beauty of Truth, but we are, since time immemorial, habituated to love untruth in the name of Truth. And therefore, to the mundane thinker, Truth and Beauty are incompatible terms.

Mundane Truth and beauty are explained as follows:

A man fell in love with a beautiful girl. He was very powerful and strongly built, but his character was doubtful. The girl, meanwhile, was not only beautiful in appearance, but also saintly in character. As such the beautiful girl did not like the proposal of the powerful man. The powerful man, however, insisted upon his lustful desires, whereupon the beautiful girl requested the man to wait for only seven days and after that she fixed up a time when they could meet. The strong man agreed, and with high expectations began to count the hours, waiting for the moment when he was fixed to meet the girl.

The saintly girl, however, in order to manifest the real beauty of relative Truth, adopted a means which is very instructive: She took a very strong dose of purgative medicine, and for seven days continually she passed loose stool and vomitted all that she ate. All the loose stool and the vomit she stored up in suitable reservoirs. As a result of this laxative medicine, the so-called beautiful girl became lean, thin as a skeleton, and turned gloomy of complexion, with her beautiful eyes pushed into the socket of the skull.

At the appointed hour, she was waiting anxiously to receive the man in love.

The man appeared on the scene well-dressed and well-behaved, and asked the waiting girl, who was depressed in appearance, about the beautiful girl who had called him there. The man could not recognize the waiting girl, as the same beauty whom he was asking for. The girl was in a pitiable condition, and the foolish man, in spite of repeated assertions, could not recognise her. All due to the action of the medicine.

At last the girl told the powerful man the story of her beauty, that she had separated the ingredients of beauty, and stored them up in the reservoirs. She told him that he could have and enjoy the juices of beauty stored up in these reservoirs if he wanted them. The man agreed to see the juices of beauty, and thus he was directed to the store of loose stool and liquid vomit, which were emanating unbearable odors. Thus the whole story of the liquid beauty was disclosed to him. The characterless man, by the grace of the saintly girl, was now able to distinguish between the shadow and the substance, and thus he came to his senses.

That is the real position of every one of us who are attracted by false material beauty. The girl above-mentioned developed a beautiful material body as she desired in her mind, but she was actually apart from that temporary material manifestation of body and mind. She is in fact a spiritual spark, and so also is the man in love, who was attracted by the false skin of the girl.

Many great thinkers, poets, artists and people in general, are deluded by the outward beauty and attraction of the relative truth, and are unaware of the spiritual spark which is both Truth and Beauty at one and the same time. The spiritual spark is so beautiful that on its leaving the body no one any longer wishes to touch it, even though the body may be decorated with the most costly jewels.

And because we are all after a false, relative truth, we find it to be incompatible with real beauty. The truth is so permanently beautiful that it maintains the same standard of beauty as it is for millions upon millions of years. Besides that, the spiritual spark is indestructible. The beauty of the outer skin can be destroyed in a few hours time by one small dose of strong purgative, but the beauty of Truth is always the same, and is indestructible just as it is. Unfortunately, mundane writers are ignorant of the beautiful sparks of spirit, as well as of the fiery resources of these spiritual sparks and their interrelations of transcendental pastimes.

When these pastimes are displayed here by the Grace of the Almighty, the foolish persons who cannot see beyond the gross senses mistake such pastimes of Truth and Beauty as being within the same field as the store of loose stools and liquid vomit. Thus they come to despair, and then declare that Truth and beauty cannot be accommodated at one and the same time.

The mundane thinkers do not know that the Whole Spiritual Entity is the beautiful Person attracting everything as the Prime Substance, the Prime Source and the Fountainhead of everything that be. And the infinitesimal spiritual sparks, as parts and parcels of the Whole Spirit, are qualitatively the same—beautiful and eternal entities. The difference is that the Whole is eternally the Whole, and the parts are eternally the parts. Both of them are the Ultimate Truth, Ultimate Beauty, Ultimate Knowledge, Ultimate Energy, Ultimate Renunciation and Ultimate Opulence.

Any literature which does not describe such Ultimate Truth and Beauty is a store of loose stools and liquid vomit of the relative truth. Real literature is that which describes this Ultimate Truth and Beauty

A Systematic Study of Bhagavad Gita Chapter 1 : Observing the Armies on the Battle Field of Kurukshetra

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 19:59:00 +0000

Following post gives a synopsis of the lecture of Bhagavad Gita Discourse by His Grace Balaram Das, disciple of His Holiness Radhanath Swami.
Venue : Schaumburg, IL

Lecture 1 on 02/19/2011 and Lecture 2 on 02/25/2011

Book : Bhagavad Gita As it is , by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Sawmi Prabhupada
Copyright : International Society for Krsna Consciouness ( ISKCON)

Introduction :

Bhagavad Gita is a widely read theistic science. Though this book is by far the most popular book, its true understanding is rare. Due to its intricate philosophy of life, often people tedn to interpret this text and conclude diffferent meanings from this book for their own selfish motives. Bhagavad Gita As it is is an attempt by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, to explain the real purport of Bhagavad Gita as it was meant to be, hence the book itself is tiltled as " Bhagavad Gita As it is "

Before embarking on study of this most important book, it is very essential to understand how Bhagavad Gita was understood by Arjuna, who heard it directly from Krsna. Krsna mentions in the Bhagavad Gita itself that why he had chosen Arjuna to be the first diciple to recieve this knowledge,

sa eväyaà mayä te 'dya
yogaù proktaù purätanaù
bhakto 'si me sakhä ceti
rahasyaà hy etad uttamam [ B.g. 4.3]

That very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are My devotee as well as My friend and can therefore understand the transcendental mystery of this science.

So few important points before trying to understand Bhagavad Gita are

1. One must not be envious of The Supreme Personality of Godhead , Krsna , and he should be a friend to him.

2. One must know that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, For those who do not believe this or trust this statement , they must atleast believe it thereotically that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Bhagavad Gita will scientifically establish this truth.

3. One must try to understand these teachings with a surrendred spirit and not with a challenging spirit.

4. One must not interpret the teachings of Bhagavad Gita to suit one's purpose.

With these four things, when one listens to Bhagavad Gita As it is from a bonafide source who has studied Bhagavad Gita from a bonafide disciplic succession one can relish the message of Bhagavad Gita and make ones life successful.

Each Chapter of Bhagavad Gita has a specific theme and in our study we would be making an attempt to address these themes .

Chapter 1 of Bhagavad Gita Entitled " Observing the Armies on the Battle Field of Kurushetra is also called as " Arjuna Visahad Yoga" it has different sections as shown in the diagram above.

Section I :

Verse 1.1 - 1.27 provide an introduction to the battlefield of Kuruskhetra.

Subsection A : Preparation for War : Verses 1.1 – 1.11

This section Starts with the enquiry of Dhrtarastra to Sanjaya his secretary regarding the armies on the Battle field of Kurushestra and ends with Duryodhana’s description of the armies of Pandavas and Kuru’s.

Important points to remember from these verses are as follows :

1. Dhrtarastra’s addressing His sons and Kuru’s and separating out sons of Pandu for the family, reveals his mind to usurp the kingdom for himself

2. Significance of the holy place of pilgrimage called Kurukshetra referred here as dharma kshetra.

3. Dhrtarastra’s worry of the influence the holy place of pilgrimage called Kurukshetra will have on naturally pious Pandavas and the reverse influence on his own son Duryodhana.

4. Sanjaya’s prediciting the mind of Dhrtarastra and assuring him that the war will not be stopped.

5. Duryodana’s diplomatic address to Dronacharya in finding out his fault in training Dryatadhumyna in military art, although knowing that he will be killed by him. Braminical qualification of Dronacharaya of training Draystadhumna even though knowing that he will kill him .

6. Duryodhan’s description of Pandava’s strength and his making his commanders attentive.

7. Duryodhan’s encouragement to his soldiers by describing the strength of his army .

8. Duryodhana’s confidence of victoru based on Bhisma’s strength and his experience in fighting.

Subsection B : Signs of Victory of Pandavas ( verses 1.12 – 1.20 )

This section starts with blowing of conch shell by Bhismadeva and ends with the description of Krsna and Arjuna on a chariot with a flag marked with Hanuman. This section mainly gives description of the various signs of victory for Pandavas.

Points to remember

1. Bhishmadeva’s louldly blowing the conchshell to indicate to Duryodhana that it was impossible for him to win since Lord Krsna was on Pandava’s side, but still it was Bhismadeva’s duty to fight and hence there will not be any slackness in that

2. Duryodhana’s feeling joy on hearing Bhismadeva’s blowing of his conchshell loudly like a lion , thinking he would be victorious because of Bhismadeva.

3. Blowing of transcendental Conchshells by Krsna and Arjuna , indicating that they will be victorious . also word Madhava means husband of Goddess of fortune, wherever there is Krsna , Goddess of fortune resides there hence, victory and fortune were on Arjuna’s side. Also the chariot of Arjuna was donated by Agni deva , which can conquer all directions

4. Addressing Krsna as Hrishekesa means controller of the senses , as supersoul , all the senses of the living entities belong to Krsna and he directs the senses of the living entities from within with respect to the degree of surrender, but for a pure devotee he controls the senses completely. Blowing of different conchshells was encouraging to the soldiers on Pandavas’s side and hence another sign of victory.

5. Different conchshells were blown by different members of the Kuru dynasty , indicating all will be killed in the battlefield due to ill motives of Dhrtarastra.

6. Heart breaking on the side of Duryodhana after hearing the conchshells on Pandava’s side, due to their confidence in Lord Krsna.

7. Lord Krsna, seated on the chariot of Arjuna marked with a flag of Hanuman, indicating that as Hanuman assisted Lord Rama in victory over Ravana, he would do so here for Arjuna, with Lord Rama i.e Krsna himself being present on Arjuna’s side thus showing definite signs of Victory for pandavas

Subsection C : Krsna as Bhakta – Vatsala [ Verse 1.21 – verse 1.27]

This section describes Krsna’s nature as affectionate to his devotees.

Points to remember

1. Krsna addressed as Acyuta or infallible, since Krsna never fails in his affection for his devotee. For the sake of his pure devotee Arjuna , he had taken a role of a chariot driver, but his position as the Supreme Personality of Godhead is not compromised in any situation. Arjuna was aware of Krsna’s position since his being a pure devotee and hence he addressed Krsna as Acyuta

2. Though Arjuna could not fall into illusion, because of his being a pure devotee and Krna’s friend, by the inspiration from the Krsna as a supersoul, Arjuna, wished to see the armies.

3. Krsna being the supersoul predicted Arjuna’s mind and asked him to look at the Kurus, especially Bhismadeva and Dronacarya so that he might fall into compassion and that illusion will set the ground for Krsna to recite the Bhagavad Gita for benefit of all.

Section II :

Verses 1.28- verse 1.46 in summary explain the five reasons which Arjuna gave for not fighting the battlefield

Verses 1.28 – 1.30 : Compassion

Arjuna felt compassion for the family members and all the soldiers from both sides who were going to fight in the battle of Kurushetra. Arjuna being a pure devotee of the Lord, though of it as unnecessary fight in order to acquire a kingdom , which will be tainted with blood of so many members of the Kuru dynasty. Due to his softheartedness owing to his being a pure devotee of the Lord, he was experiencing standing of hairs on his body. Srila Prabhupada explains in his purport that there are two situations when one experiences standing of hair on this body one is during spiritual ecstasy due to excessive joy and another situation is due to fear. In this case since Slipping of Arjuna’s famous Gandiva bow is mentioned it is understood that he was fearful and hence he was showing these symptoms. Such a situation happens due to material attachment.

Verses 1.31 – Verse 1.35 : Lack of Enjoyment

In these verses, Arjuna tells Krsna that if he were to kill all his relatives, than how is he going to enjoy the kingdom. Generally we want to win or acquire something with a hope of sharing and showing that to our friends and relatives in order to enjoy the victory. Arjuna’s Addressing Lord Krsna as Govinda which means one who gives pleasure to the senses is significant in this connection., by this Arjuna was indicating to Krsna that since he is Govinda, he should know what Arjuna is going through and hence he should not compel him to fight ,thus giving his senses pleasure, Srila Prabhupada explains here that Govinda is not meant for satistying our senses, but we are meant to satisfy Krsna’s senses and in turn our senses will also be satisfied once Krsna is satisfied and that is why Krsna is called Govinda. Genearlly everyone goes to Krsna to ask for facilities in order to satisfy his or her senses and they want Krsna to be their order supplier, but the constitutional position of a living entity is to satisfy Krsna’s senses and inturn the living entities senses will be completely satisfied, since we the living entities are infinitesimal parts and parcels of the Supreme.

Verses 1.36 – 1.38 : Fear of Sinful Reactions

These three verses describes Arjuna’s saintly nature due to his being a devotee, he was aware of the sinful reaction of killing once family members and hence he argued with Krsna that he should not induce him to fight his family members, his addrerssing him as Madhava signifys that since Krsna was husband of Goddess of fortune, he should not ask Arjuna to act in a way which will bring him misfortune, but Krsna never brings misfortune to anyone, what to speak of his devotees. Prabhupada explains in the purport that as per Vedic wisdom there are 6 kinds of aggressors namely

1. poison giver, 2. one who sets fire to the house, 3. one who attacks with deadly weapons, 4. one who plunders riches, 5. one who occupies another’s land and 6. one who kidnaps a wife.

As a kshatriya Arjuna is supposed to kill such aggressors, it is required for a administrator to be saintly in behaviour but not cowardly, example of Lord Rama is given by Prabhupada, he was a ideal king and every one wanted to live in rama rajya , but he never forgave Ravana for his misconduct of kidnapping Sitadevi. But in Arjuna’s case the aggressors where his own family member hence it was a special case, due to his saintly nature he had thoughs of sins that he might commit by killing his own family members, taking all these pros and cons into consideration he considered not to fight to be a better option

Verses 1.39 – verses 1.43 : Destruction of Family tradition

These are the remaining verses in the Chapter 1, in these verses Arjuna describes the evil consequences of such a war where all the elderly personalities in the Kuru dynasty will be killed. As per Vedic etiquette elders of the family are never to be killed or even offered a verbal fight, since they guide the following generations in proper religions conduct. In absence of elders in the family the family traditions and the religious practices of sraddha will be stopped which will bring ruination to the future genearation, in absence of the elders the women of the family may intermingle freely which will lead to unwanted progency ( varna sankara) population which will create havoc and hellish life for all in the society. Considering the evil effects of killing his own kinsmen he did not think of fighting the war as a good idea and hence he sat on the chariot and kept his bow Gandiva down.

Verse 2.6 : In decision

This verse is explained in the second chapter and it decribes the indecision of Arujna on fighting the war. Since Drona and Bhisma where his spiritual master and grandfather respecitively and were very pious people. Arjuna has great respect and reverence for both of them and he was confused whether he should try to win over them or let them win over him in this condition as the later verses in Bhagvad Gita explain he surrendered to Krsna and accepted him as his spiritual master to instruct him on the right path.

Thus the First chapters sets the stage for Lord Krsna to speak the Bhagavad Gita to everyone through Arjuna. Our Acharyas explaing that since Arjuna was a pure devotee of the Lord, there is no chance that he could fall into any illusion, but only by Lord Krsna’s arrangement he was put into this illusion so that entire world can be benefited with the transcendental knowledge of Bhagavad Gita and make their lives perfect.

Cause of all Causes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 19:08:00 +0000

Cause and Effect are the natural phenomenon in this material world. Every Cause is followed by an Effect and every Effect has a Cause. This phenomenon of cause and effect is explained in Vedic texts as well as in the modern science alike. Newton's law states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction and similarly in Vedanta Sutra, the Cause and effect phenomenon is explained in great detail. Knowing this truth, we generally tend to look at the cause and effects with our limited vision and blame or praise certain cause for the effects that we may enjoy or suffer during the course of our journey through life. For example, if we obtain something desirable, for instance, if we obtain a promotion, we give the credit to our boss and think that it is because of him alone that we are getting this raise, or some others think that because of their performance alone they are getting this promotion. Similarly when we obtain something undesirable or if someone has broken our heart, we tend to blame the other person of being the cause of this sorrow that we are getting.

It indeed is true that our boss or our performance did play a significant role in getting us the promotion or the person who broke your heart certainly played a vital role in your sorrow. But they are not the causes of it; they merely are instruments through which we receive the so called sorrow or happiness. They are the immediate causes that come to our mind for the effect we are experiencing. Brahma Samihata verse 5.1 explains that the cause of all causes is the supreme personality of Godhead Sri Krsna.

isvarah paramam krsna

sac-cid-änanda-vigraha
anädir ädir govinda
sarva-karana-karanam [ B.s. 5.1]

" Krsna who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes."

     What does it mean when we say cause of all causes? Cause of all causes means that whatever we see in our purview is emanating from Lord Sri Krsna. So some may ask then what is the cause of Sri Krishna, that is why the verse mentions anadir adir govinda, which means Govinda, or Lord Krsna is the cause of all causes but he has no cause he is svarat or independent. We the living entities have been conditioned by material nature to always think in terms of cause and effect within the limits of time. We do not have the conception of eternality. That is the reason we always think of everything as being born and everything will be destroyed, though this is true in connection to this material world, this is not true to a parallel existence beyond this material world which is called as spiritual world, though the information of the spiritual world is unknown to the modern science, nevertheless descriptions have been mentioned in the Vedic literatures regarding the nature and quality of the spiritual world. Lord Sri Krishna briefly mentions about the spiritual world in the fifteenth chapter of Bhagavad-Gita as,

na tad bhäsayate süryo
na sasanko na pävaka
yad gatvä na nivartante
tad dhäma paramam mama [ B.g. 15.6]

"That supreme abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by fire or electricity. Those who reach it never return to this material world."

    As per the verse in Brahma Samhita, Lord Sri Krsna is the supreme cause of all causes. That means whatever good or bad we receive in our lives has its root cause coming from Lord Sri Krishna. But of course that should not mean that we blame Krishna of everything that goes wrong in our lives and for whatever good we obtain we praise him a little but within we believe that we are the cause of that. Although the ultimate cause in undoubtedly Lord Krishna, the respective happiness or sorrow which we receive in the material world is not his wish, whatever we received is based on our immediate cause, i.e. our actions. As per the law of Karma we shall reap what we sow, that is sure, but the cause of that law is Lord Krishna, hence the cause of all causes is Lord Sri Krishna.

With a simple example we can explain the above facts. In today’s modern world, advancement of technology and machinery is of a great amazement to common mass of people and often people, who are not well versed with science of God, conclude that man's intelligence surpasses everyone and hence human intelligence can make everything possible, there are attempts to scientifically create life also, although they have not been successful. In short with advancement in technology modern man is trying to compete with God. This foolish proposition is a result of lack of knowledge about the greatness of God and ignorance of the fact that he is the cause of all causes. Even though man has become successful with much advancement in technology and science, but the prime questions is who the cause for developing human intelligence is. Certainly human beings have not developed intelligence in laboratories, moreover when the child is in mothers womb, the developments of the child taking place in mothers body in an organized manner at perfect times without any external assistance should convince any sane man on God's wondrous and perfect workings. Exactly after 8 weeks child’s hands and legs begin to form, after a period of 9 months the baby is intelligent enough to know that it is time for it to come out of the womb and makes attempts to break free. So the question may arise as to who is the cause of this intelligence?

The astonishing achievements in technology and machinery requires lot of material things, like computers require iron, plastic etc. we get all these from nature and nature is one of the energies of God as mentioned by Lord Sri Krishna himself in the Bhagavad-Gita . Hence the ultimate cause is Sri Krishna.

mayädhyaksena prakåti
süyate sa-caräcaram

hetunänena kaunteya

jagad viparivartate [B.g. 9.10]

" This material nature, which is one of My energies, is working under My direction, O son of Kunté, producing all moving and nonmoving beings. Under its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again."

     So if one gets a promotion or if someone breaks your heart, one must remember, that the person who has become an instrument in these effects is not the ultimate cause, though we appreciate their contribution, we must always remember the cause of all causes is Lord Sri Krishna. The so called happiness or sorrow that one receives in this world is result of our own activities, but it is comes to us in different ways and through different mediums, And if one remembers always that Lord Sri Krishna is the enjoyer, proprietor and a very compassionate friend of all, one can understand that so called temporary happiness and sorrow of this world has no meaning. With the firm belief and trust on the judgment of the most compassionate friend Lord Sri Krishna, a person surrendered to the Lord takes every event of his life as a lesson knowing that God, will always want good for him. Lord Sri Krishna Himself mentions this in the 5th chapter of Bhagavad-Gita

bhoktäram yajna-tapasäm
sarva-loka-mahesvaram
suhrd sarva-bhütänäm
jnatva mäm santim racchati [ B.g. 5.29]

" A person in full consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate beneficiary of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attains peace from the pangs of material miseries."

Further He concludes,

sarva-dharmän parityajya
mäm ekaà çaraëaà vraja
aham tväm sarva-päpebhyo
moksayisyämi mä sucau [ B.g. 18.66]

“Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear."

      Like a concerned father in asks his sons and daughters to take shelter of him unconditionally in love and he will save his devotee from all the dangers, and in the form of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Lord Sri Krishna Himself descended on this material world 500 years ago to show the people in general who had misunderstood his instruction in Bhagavad-Gita, on how to surrender to Krishna. To make things easy for the current fallen Age of Kali, he inaugurated the simplest form of process to surrender in love by chanting the holy names of God Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, which is joyfully performed by any kind of human being irrespective of caste, creed, sex, nationality, birth or status.

Arjuna's Bewilderment

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 01:45:00 +0000

It seems every Indian thinks the most important thing Krishna stresses in the Bhagavad-gita is that “You should do your duty.” Krishna's instructing Arjuna to do his duty as a ksatriya and fight in the battle is certainly a very strong theme in Bhagavad-gita:

tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu mām anusmara yudhya ca
mayy arpita-mano-buddhir mām evaiṣyasy asaṁśayaḥ

"Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me, and at the same time you should continue your prescribed duty and fight. With your mind and activities always fixed on Me, and everything engaged in Me, you will attain to Me without any doubt." (Bg. 8.7)

Arjuna is a ksatriya, a fighter, and therefore his duty is to fight. All political avenues have been explored and there is no alternative to the fight. Therefore it is Arjuna’s duty to fight. And Krishna is instructing him to fight. The situation is quite difficult for him however because practically speaking all the soldiers on the battlefield on both sides are Arjuna's friends and family members. Therefore in the beginning Arjuna becomes bewildered.

Although Arjuna knows it is his duty to fight, when he is seated on the chariot in the middle of the two armies, Pandavas on one side and Kurus on the other side Arjuna looks everywhere on both sides and sees only friends and family members and his teachers. Everyone is related to him in some way. So he thinks that if they fight this will be a great disaster and even if he is victorious in the battle because so many friends and family members will be killed on both sides. Arjuna is feeling that his life would not be worth living, even though he may be victorious in the battle. So he decides, “Krishna I shall not fight.” And he proposes going to the forest and living under a tree as if he give up the fight his reputation as a great fighter would be spoiled as everyone would think that he fled from the battlefield in fear of being killed after seen the very strong army of the Kurus.

In this position Arjuna is completely bewildered and he does not know what to do. So he surrenders to his friend Krishna. The relationship between Krishna and Arjuna changes at this moment. In the beginning of the discussion they were friends, but Arjuna becomes bewildered and does not know what to do so he accepts his friend Krishna as his spiritual master, as his guru and surrenders to Him.

kārpaṇya-doṣopahata-svabhāvaḥ
pṛcchāmi tvāṁ dharma-sammūḍha-cetāḥ
yac chreyaḥ syān niścitaṁ brūhi tan me
śiṣyas te ‘haṁ śādhi māṁ tvāṁ prapannam

"Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me clearly what is best for me. Now I am Your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me." (Bhagavad-gītā 2.7)

So you see what has happened here. Krishna has instructed Arjuna that he should do his duty as a Ksatriya and fight. But Arjuna realized that if he does that then it will be disastrous for his friends and family who will mostly all get killed. So Arjuna is thinking that it would be better for everyone if he did not do his duty. Then the battle would not take place and his family members would not be killed.

Arjuna says here that he is confused about his duty. So the real point here is that Arjuna does not know what his duty is so is surrendering to Krishna and saying to Krishna “Please instruct me.” Arjuna is now Krishna's disciple, a soul surrenderd to Krishna and he will now do whatever Krishna tells him to do.

So the actual central point of the Bhagavad-gita, is really to surrender to Krishna in the mood of Arjuna, “Please instruct me.”

At this point it does not matter what Arjuna thinks is his duty. Actually at this point Arjuna is completely confused about his duty. On one hand he knows that he has the duty as a ksatriya and he should fight but on the other hand he has another duty to his friends and family and does not want to see them killed. So Arjuna is confused about his duty. So Bhagavad-gita is not actually about “doing your duty.” Arjuna does not even know what his duty is, so how can he do his duty? Many of us are also in the same position. We are confused about our duty.

The message of Bhagavad-gita is surrender to Krishna and get Krishna to instruct us, “please instruct me,” to let Krishna claify to us what is our duty.

It is not that we know what our duty is and Bhagavad-gita is telling us that we must do that. No. Bhagavad-gita is telling us to surrender to Krishna and let Krishna instruct us as at to what our duty is. Of course in Arjuna's case he was speaking with Krishna directly, but for us Krishna advises that we approach Him through His bona fide spiritual master and the spiritual master can let us know what we should do, what is actually our duty. Of course we can also hear from Krishna and from Sirla Prabhupada and from a careful study of Bhagavad-gita a thoughtful person can conclude what is his duty. Krishna will speak to him and Prabhuapda will speak to him...

These things can be discussed very elaborately and for a long time but really the Indian idea that Krishna is telling Arjuna to do his duty is a very superficial understanding of the Gita. It is true of course. Because when Arjuna surrenders to Krishna Krishna does instruct him to fight. But Krishna could have also instructed Arjuna to leave the battlefield and Arjuna would have done that also if that is what Krishna wanted him to do. The point is Arjuna accepted Krishna as His spiritual master and agreed to do whatever Krishna instructed him to do. Arjuna surrenderd to Krishna.

So the real point of Bhagavad-gita is surrender to Krishna. Not doing one’s duty. Actually one's duty is to surrender to Krishna and Krishna actually concludes His instructions to Arjuna in the Gita by saying exactly this:

sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

"Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear." (Bg. 18.66)

This is a very radical way really for Krishna to conclude His instructions in the Bhagavad-gita with. In India and all over the world they have invented so many dharmas, or occupations, or religions and Krishna is concluding here that Arjuna should give up all these dharmas or religions and simply surrender unto Him. So this is Krishna's real message, the real conclusion of Bhagavad-gita. Surrender to Krishna. This is the main message.

This is adapted from Srila Prabhuapda's Bhagavad-gita As It Is. If you do not have the book please get it and read it from:
http://krishnastore.com/bhagavad-gita-as-it-is-with-bonus-dvd-h-krishna-407.html

If you have questions and comments on this email then rather than replying to the email directly please post them on the article at:
http://krishna.org/arjunas-bewilderment/
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
http://www.krishnastore.com/

Blind Man carrying the Lame Man

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 14:38:00 +0000

The Founder Acarya of International Society for Krsna Consciousness, His Divine Grace A. C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, used to often give this example of a Blind Man Carrying the Lame Man to stress on topic of co-operation. A man who is blind cannot see and a lame man cannot walk. So if both of them combine and the Blind Man carries the Lame man on his shoulders, the Lame man can show him the direction by which both of them can use what they have and become successful in achieving what they lack. Srila Prabhupada used to site this example in connection with combining the efforts of materially advanced nation like United States of America and spiritually advanced nation like India. If both of them utilize their expertise in helping each other they can combine to become a very powerful force in the world.

Lord Krishna informs us in Bhagavad-Gita that the material body is the covering of the soul which is moving the material body.

väsäàsi jérëäni yathä vihäya

naväni gåhëäti naro 'paräëi

tathä çaréräëi vihäya jérëäny

anyäni saàyäti naväni dehé [B.g. 2.22]

“As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones".

Just like a car is moving because of the presence of a driver, similarly the body is animated because of the soul within the body. The presence of the soul can be perceived by the presence of Consciousness all over the body, In other words the body is conscious because of the soul. This can be validated by studying the dead body, all the organs in a dead body are same as that of a living body, but since the soul has left the body there is no consciousness in a dead body. The presence of soul in a body is debated and some accept it and other don't, but as far as Bhagavad-Gita is concerned, it is clearly stated that, soul is the primary cause of consciousness and that is our real identity. The soul is a part and parcel of God and it cannot be destroyed by any means.

na jäyate mriyate vä kadäcin
näyaà bhütvä bhavitä vä na bhüyaù

ajo nityaù çäçvato 'yaà puräëo

na hanyate hanyamäne çarére [B.g 2.20]

"For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain."

So our real identity is that we are spirit souls and part and parcel of God and not the material bodies. Even the dimensions of the soul have been mentioned in various other Vedic texts

bälägra-çata-bhägasya
çatadhä kalpitasya ca
bhägo jévaù sa vijïeyaù
sa cänantyäya kalpate [Svetasvara Upanishad 5.9]

"When the upper point of a hair is divided into one hundred parts and again each of such parts is further divided into one hundred parts, each such part is the measurement of the dimension of the spirit soul."

If one is real researcher and wants to know the truth and studies these Vedic literatures with an unbiased mind, he or she will find out very interesting facts about life and which will drastically change the perspective of an individual about life and things around him or her.

So coming back to the topic, modern civilizations are highly advanced in technology, which is primarily meant to provide comfort to the material body, it is good to have these facilities indeed and the progress done in this regard is truly appreciable. The material body as mentioned in Bhagavad-Gita as a covering of the soul and is a machine which helps the soul to conduct itself in this world, but by making the machine comfortable will not make the soul happy. Just like polishing the cage nicely and decorating it with flowers but neglecting the bird within the cage and not feeding it will eventually lead to the death of the bird and without the bird the nicely decorated cage has no value. Similarly, as per the Vedic Literatures, Spirit soul within the material body is the actual self and not the body, our misidentification with the body and only taking care of the body, will soon lead to dissatisfaction of the soul leading to its unhappiness. This is the reason why in today's world, we find materially developed countries , even though they have ample of money have one of the highest rates of suicides and mental disorders like depressions and that is the major cause of many deaths. One who neglects the interest of the soul and only cares for the body is a Blind man. Hence it is very important for every human being to inquire about the soul with open mind and try to understand the science behind it, in order to see properly.

On the other hand, developing countries, like India, though they have the required spiritual knowledge struggle economically. If the body is not fit to work, the soul cannot work properly; hence it is also important to take care of the body sufficiently. Though body is less important than the soul, but it has to be maintained for the soul to carry out its business in this world. Hence such a person who is hampered materially is a Lame Man, who cannot walk properly. Vedic culture in India, has answers to all the problems in the world and can guide the whole world, to peaceful situation, with its advanced spiritual science and knowledge on the other hand developed nations with advanced material science can join hands to explore and research the truths embedded in these ancient texts using the latest technologies to educate the people all over the world. Such a co-operative spirit will surely bring peace to the world. Thus if the Blind man (materially advanced nations) carry the Lame man, like India on their shoulders, both of them will be benefited.

Some efforts have been made in this direction and institutions like ISKCON are practical examples of this co-operation, however, the number is very small. Unfortunately, in this age of quarrel know as Kali Yuga, people are more inclined towards material advancement rather than spiritual knowledge. This is evident from the fact, that even though India has got a wealth of spiritual knowledge, now a days, the leaders are inclined more towards, material prosperity, trying to follow in the footsteps of materially advanced nations, the young generation of this country is slowly forgetting the spiritual heritage and taking to modern ways, in short, the lame man is trying to become blind also. Hence there is a great need for everyone to understand the importance of spiritual knowledge and study Vedic literatures, like Bhagavad-Gita, with an unbiased mind, from a bonafide teacher to understand the intricacies of life and its purpose. With the purified mind one must try to understand the spiritual self and make his or her life successful and in this age of Kali the best way to purify as mentioned in the scriptures is to chant the holy names of God, Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare.

harer näma harer näma
harer nämaiva kevalam
kalau nästy eva nästy eva
nästy eva gatir anyathä [C.c. Adi, 17.21]

“‘In this Age of Kali there is no other means, no other means, no other means for self-realization than chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name of Lord Hari.’