People, we need enhance our relationships. We need to enhance our communication skills. And we need to learn how to resolve conflicts. First, we need to attend seminars that will show us how to do it, and then we need to implement it in our life. Then, we will be happy, and of course, direct our energy to serving Krishna, since we will save so much energy that we used on negative emotions, anger etc. Wow, cool. Does it work? Not really. Why? First of all, in this world, there is one big problem, we eat each other. Srimad Bhagavatam says jivo jivasya jivanam, one living entity is food for another living entity. OK, but humans usually don’t eat each other so that doesn’t apply. Well, that’s true, but humans have other problems. Humans like to exploit each other in Kali-yuga as we can see present capitalistic society. Humans have bad habits, such as anger, lust and false ego because of which they are completely unable to have good relationships. OK, but we are not humans, we are devotees. So that doesn’t not apply to us. Well, that is not completely accurate. There are various grades of devotees, some of them are pure devotees, some of them are still influenced by modes of material nature. So, if we are not completely pure, we will still have problems in relationships. Yes, but relationships seminars can bring us to higher modes of nature. Not true, only studying Prabhupada’s books and chanting Hare Krishna can purify us. We should follow the standard method of purification. After we are purified, we can have good relationship with Krishna. Other methods are simply cheating, promising something that will not happen. So, there is no need for separate endeavour for all those new age skills because Srila Prabhupada never encouraged such endeavours. Yet, Srila Prabhupada had perfect communications skills and perfect relationship with Krishna. Still, we don’t like to hear that. We like new, exciting methods to enhance our skills, but what is wrong with old, standard methods like chanting and reading Srila Prabhupada’s books. Are those old methods insufficient? It seems that they are, since we often take all-inclusive approach and in the same time we chant Hare Krishna and listen to cow-eating experts. This is not called all-inclusive approach, it is called lack-of-discrimination approach. So, do relationship seminars work ? Well, yea, they do. Participants often feel great after such events. It doesn’t matter what Srila Prabhupada’s books say about me, how should I measure my advancement. It’s important that I think that I feel better. And of course, it works for lecturers also, they become important, everybody listens to them, everybody looks at them, everybody is thanking them for their help (and money is sweeter than honey). Yea, we must adjust. Hard times, maybe if you preach from Srila Prabhupada’s books not many people will be interested, but if you bring new exiting method for quickly solving all your problems without any tapasya, when you will have many interested people. So, why should we sell diamonds, not many people have money to buy them, let’s just sell cheap imitations. Cheater and cheated circle nicely closed.
One sentence is going through my mind a lot in last week or so. It’s from vyasa-puja offering from Bhakti Vikasa swami to Srila Prabhupada from 1991: Srila Prabhupada, I pray to you for the strength to check my madness. I do not want that when the time comes to quit this body, I will have to lament a wasted life. So, as I go through life every day this thought comes to my mind. What am I doing for Srila Prabhupada? Not much. Insignificant activities mostly. Trying to survive by earning money, fixing things in the house. These are all called material arrangements which doesn’t contribute to my spiritual bank account. This sentence made me more serious to do more each day of spiritual things. Chanting, reading Srimad Bhagavatam, having morning program, these activities are the ones that count.
Not much time for blogging. I am checking translation of brilliant book called “Jaya Srila Prabhupada” by Bhakti Vikasa Swami. Some nectar: In his old age, Bhismadeva was still enthusiastic and fit for fighting. Before passing away, he spoke perfectly on religious principles from bed of arrows. Similarly, Srila Prabhupada went out in his old age to fight and finally gave religious instruction from his departure bed. As Lord Krishna was personally present at passing of Bhisma, so He was at the departure of Srila Prabhupada. Before Bhisma, He appeared in the four-armed form so dear to him, and at passing of Srila Prabhupada, He appeared in the form of Hare Krishna maha-mantra, so dear to Srila Prabhupada. Jaya Srila Prabhupada.” (page 37)
Everything belongs to the Supreme, and therefore one should not usurp another’s property. We have a tendency to manufacture many things. Especially nowadays, we are building skyscrapers and developing other material facilities. We should know, however, that the ingredients of the skyscrapers and machines cannot be manufactured by anyone but the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The whole world is nothing but a combination of the five material elements (tejo-vāri-mṛdāḿ yathā vinimayaḥ). A skyscraper is a transformation of earth, water and fire. Earth and water are combined and burnt into bricks by fire, and a skyscraper is essentially a tall construction of bricks. Although the bricks may be manufactured by man, the ingredients of the bricks are not. Of course, man, as a manufacturer, may accept a salary from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is stated here: tena tyaktena bhuñjīthāḥ. One may construct a big skyscraper, but neither the constructor, the merchant nor the worker can claim proprietorship. Proprietorship belongs to the person who has spent for the building. The Supreme Personality of Godhead has manufactured water, earth, air, fire and the sky, and one can use these and take a salary (tena tyaktena bhuñjīthāḥ). However, one cannot claim proprietorship. This is perfect communism. Our tendency to construct great buildings should be used only for constructing large and valuable temples in which to install the Deity of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then our desire for construction will be fulfilled. Everything is property of Krishna. What a cool point. Sometimes we stop process of bhakti-yoga because we don’t feel inspired. Or it becomes boring, or we become “too lazy”, “too fallen” etc. But actually, if we have spiritual knowledge, we should understand from this point that if Krishna is owner, it is out duty to serve Him, and try to please Him because He supplies us with air, water etc. That is minimum. This is our duty, it’s not matter of emotions, inspiration etc. Same as regular job. If we get salary from somebody, our duty is to work for that person. We can’t say “I am not inspired today.” Who cares for your inspiration? It is our duty to repay our debt to Krishna. It is not matter of inspiration or emotions. It is matter of understanding philosophy. We use Krishna’s mercy to get away with stupid excuses like that. Because Krishna usually doesn’t stop water, sun or air if we don’t satisfy him. He just tolerates. But that doesn’t mean He is happy. It still makes us thief. And any normal person doesn’t want to be thief. We might think we tricked Krishna, “Since he supplies everything anyway, why should I repay.” But when material energy sees that we are not repaying, she will reduce resources more and more. And we will become more and more poor. So, only lack in the world is lack of Krishna conscioussness, nothing else is needed. So, why do we see so many persons who are rich but don’t serve Krishna? To understand that, we must look in the past, that person did something pious for sure. But wealth is usually great curse for materialists, because they degrade more and more if they are rich. And we must also look in terms of time, how long that person will be rich, and where is he going after this life. So, serving Krishna is our duty, it is not matter emotions or inspiration. Therefore, understanding basic points in philosophy is making us more strong in Krishna conscioussness. And, it can also be honor. Once we understand how Krishna is great, it becomes honor to serve him.
I like Srila Prabhupada’s books. I like them a lot. Because they speak about Krishna. Every person who writes something, often mentions himself: “I like, I think, I did that, I did this.” I, I, I! Not only “I”, there is also “me”. “My opinion, if you ask me, my blog, my house, my car”. But look at Srila Prabhupada, he could write like 500 pages without ever mentioning himself in any way. That’s just amazing and great. I like reading about Srila Prabhupada, so I have to wait like 500 pages for him to write something about himself. Lectures, same thing, very rarely mentions himself, maybe once in 50 lectures. Well, I got one nectar today. :) There is something from 8th Canto, very begging: First of all, let me offer my humble, respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master, His Divine Grace Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Prabhupāda. Sometime in the year 1935 when His Divine Grace was staying at Rādhā-kuṇḍa, I went to see him from Bombay. At that time, he gave me many important instructions in regard to constructing temples and publishing books. He personally told me that publishing books is more important than constructing temples. Of course, those same instructions remained within my mind for many years. In 1944 I began publishing my Back to Godhead, and when I retired from family life in 1958 I began publishing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in Delhi. When three parts of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam had been published in India, I then started for the United States of America on the thirteenth of August, 1965. I am continuously trying to publish books, as suggested by my spiritual master. Now, in this year, 1976, I have completed the Seventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and a summary of the Tenth Canto has already been published as Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Still, the Eighth Canto, Ninth Canto, Tenth Canto, Eleventh Canto and Twelfth Canto are yet to be published. On this occasion, therefore, I am praying to my spiritual master to give me strength to finish this work. I am neither a great scholar nor a great devotee; I am simply a humble servant of my spiritual master, and to the best of my ability I am trying to please him by publishing these books, with the cooperation of my disciples in America. Fortunately, scholars all over the world are appreciating these publications. Let us cooperatively publish more and more volumes of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam just to please His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura.
In my last post, I gave link to video about preaching of dr Kent Hovand against evolution. His preaching methods seemed to me more “bold” that Drutakarma’s, so I wrote to Drutakarma about it. You might be interested in the exchange. My email: Thank you for your reply. I was more interested in quality of his argument and evidence. For example he is claiming both carbon dating and geological columns to be inaccurate. But yes, he is claiming Earth only few thousands years old (according to Bible). Drutakarmas prabhu’s reply: PAMHO. AGTSP. It seems to me that radiocarbon dates and other dating methods used by scientists are based on sound principles. Of course, there can always be errors in particular dates because of contamination of samples, and other reasons. As for the geological column, it also appears to be based on some sound reasoning, although there could be mistakes there too. The dating methods and the geological column yield ages that are roughly consistent with the kinds of dates we would expect if we take the Puranas and their time scales as true (an age for earliest life in the low billions of years). Obviously, if you believe the earth is only ten thousand years old, then you are going to have bigger problems with the dating methods and geological column. Of course, there could in fact be problems with the dating methods and the geological column, but still, they are accepted by most scientists today. So in my work, what I do is this. I say to scientists, “According to dating methods you consider reliable and according to your understanding of the geological column, Formation X is 35 million years old. So how to do we explain the presence of this fully human fossil bone in that formation?”
TRANSLATION I had a beautiful face and a pleasing, attractive bodily structure. Decorated with flower garlands and sandalwood pulp, I was most pleasing to the women of my city. Thus I was bewildered, always feeling lusty desires. PURPORT From the description of the beauty of Nārada Muni when he was one of the denizens of Gandharvaloka, it appears that everyone on that planet is extremely beautiful and pleasing and always decorated with flowers and sandalwood. Upabarhaṇa was Nārada Muni’s name previously. Upabarhaṇa was specifically expert in decorating himself to attract the attention of women, and thus he became a playboy, as described in the next verse. To be a playboy in this life is unfortunate because too much attraction to women will lead one to fall into the association of śūdras, who can easily take advantage of mingling with women without restriction. In this present age of Kali, when people are mandāḥ sumanda-matayaḥ — very bad because of a śūdra mentality — such free mingling is prominent. Among the higher classes — brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya and vaiśya — there is no chance for men to mingle with women freely, but in the śūdra community such mingling is open. Because there is no cultural education in this age of Kali, everyone is spiritually untrained, and everyone is therefore to be considered śūdra (aśuddhāḥ śūdra-kalpā hi brāhmaṇāḥ kali-sambhavāḥ). When all the people become śūdras, certainly they are very bad (mandāḥ sumanda-matayaḥ). Thus they manufacture their own way of life, with the result that they gradually become unfortunate (manda-bhāgyāḥ), and furthermore they are always disturbed by various circumstances. Without overcoming material desires, we can not go back to spiritual world. Srila Prabhupada said that even if we have slightest material desire, we will be born again. Why? Nothing to do there. Spiritual world is for pure devotees, the ones who desire only to serve Krishna and nothing else. So, when we start process of Krishna conscioussness, we are full of material desires, sex being the one most difficult to overcome. And at the end, we must become completely free from material desires. So, how do we start? Well, first rule, if you have material desires for women and sex (and everybody has them) then don’t associate. Simple as that. Means don’t speak, don’t make jokes, just avoid. Avoid not because you hate them, but because it is dangerous (although it feels sweet, well, you can’t trust your mind, can’t you). If you are brahmacari avoid all of them, if you are grhasta, avoid all of them, except one, your wife. No exceptions. It can’t be simple as that? Yea, it’s more complicated. Over and over I see same story. “I am doing service together ( with women), I am preaching to women, because I want to liberate everybody, I am taking care for young devotees (women mostly) because nobody else takes care for them (so my motive is pure). Wow, I am exchanging realisations, yea, especially young women devotees have powerful realizations, and it doesn’t bother me that they are women, because they are not women, we are all spirit souls. We devotees know that, so why restrict association? Etc Etc. It always ends in the same way, falldown, divorce etc. Why? Because of change of rules. Veda’s have rules, so I don’t want to be called sudra, so let me be above the rules. What can poor Maya do, except to show you that you are not above the rules. What else? TV, of course. Full of women. What else? Nothing. That’s it, now you can peacefully practice spiritual life (well, at least more peacefully than before).
OK, I am not “everybody is good”, “all the same”, “peace brother”, “make love not war” kind of guy. I like keeping things separate. Since I am Hare Krishna, I am not interested in Christianity at all. Neither Gaudiya math. I respect them, but keep distance. However, rarely there are some exceptions. This guy, for example, is Christian, but makes a lot of fun with “so called scientists”. Thanks to Krishna, he doesn’t speak much about Christianity, but speaks about evolution. He smashes modern so called science in a very funny way. That was very dear to Srila Prabhupada. Has little different approach than Drutakarma. More heavy. Although funny, if you think about it, this video is dead serious. If you think about what children are thought in schools. It lasts for 2 hours but it was interesting to me.
Every time I drive car, I listen to Srila Prabhupada lectures, yesterday, I didn't drive much, maybe 5 minutes, but one point made strong impression on me. Srila Prabhupada was explaining how in material world everybody struggles for some time and then dies. He compared politicians with flies that live only during night. Flies are his favorite example but this time he connected them with politicians, who represent powerful people in Kali-yuga. So, no matter how materially powerful we are, if we look from spiritual perspective, we are insignificant and everything we do is insignificant unless we do it as service for Krishna. Quite an inspiration to take spiritual life seriously, isn't it?
textile TRANSLATION Even though situated in a material body, one who is fully aware of the paths known as pitṛ-yāna and deva-yāna, and who thus opens his eyes in terms of Vedic knowledge, is never bewildered in this material world. PURPORT Ācāryavān puruṣo veda: one who is guided by the bona fide spiritual master knows everything as stated in the Vedas, which set forth the standard of infallible knowledge. As recommended in Bhagavad-gītā, ācāryopāsanam: one must approach the ācārya for real knowledge. Tad-vijñānārthaḿ sa gurum evābhigacchet: [MU 1.2.12] one must approach the ācārya, for then one will receive perfect knowledge. When guided by the spiritual master, one attains the ultimate goal of life.
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