melvin

Thomas, an apostle of Jesus, didn`t believe in the risen Christ until he saw and felt his Master`s wounds.

I`m sorry, Chandu. That was how I saw it in Sant`s posting ( link no.96). I didn`t know it was me you referred if I believe in eternal hell or eternal punishment in hell mentioned in the Bible. Frankly, I have stopped discerning John`s revelation. I don`t to the figures 666 as symbol for anti-Christ. It`s only the versions of Mark and Matthew in the New Testament of the Bible which greatly influenced my Christian views about God.

Dear Holy Child of Cebu, I don`t know if you can forgive me. I have been a carnivore all my life. I love to eat fried egg, fish marinated in vinegar with rice. I drink coffee with milk. For lunch I eat pork stew, noodles and rice. I drink ice cold Coca Cola. For dinner, I eat chicken fillet sandwich at Mcdonalds. Drink Nestea. These are samples of what I eat my Lord. When I attend birthday parties and wedding receptions, I eat food serve as lauriat in a chinese restaurant where they serve cold cuts, steamed lapu-lapu fish with sweet and sour sauce, century eggs, fried chicken, roasted piglet, canton noodles, dumplings, and fried rice. No matter how I try, I can never detach myself from eating these tamasic foods. I`m a sinner my Lord. But please do forgive my family, too. My friends, my co-workers, the community, the Catholic Church where I was baptized, my mentors at the Colegio del Sto. Nino where I was enrolled from kindergarten to high-school. They taught me that eating meat wasn`t a sin but what comes from the heart like lust, greed, murder, etc. I may not be like my friends here who are vegetarians my Lord. Hope they can forgive me,too. Yours truly, Melvin (www.basilicadelsantoninodecebu.org.ph)

Oops, sorry. Of course, Krsna also ate rice, bread, fruits, etc. I thought non-veg food includes sea foods like sea weeds, fish. This was just reaction to what Sambya wrote that he would not likely offer non-veg food to a Bhavagan( or even to Kali or Durga). That I`m just telling him there`s a verse indicating Christ ate fish, a non-veg diet. But saying I stop reading my own wishes into the Gita and be honest. That the verse Krsna accepting a leaf, water, flower or grain has nothing to do with diet and no commentator worth his salt has ever interpreted it that way doesn`t answer Sambya`s question. Why you always talk that way?

Do you think Bali Maharaj ( Prahlada Maharaj`s grandson) a King who lived in the palace was in hell even if he was considered a demon? If this is correct, are the atheists therefore constantly in hell even if they`re living morally and upright lives? Just because they are forgetful of Krsna. So, what is really your definition of hell? As far as I know, Jesus Christ went to hell and on the third day he rose again from the dead.

Krsna says when He`s offered a flower, water, grain or leaf, He accepts them. Nor have I read a verse in the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam that Krsna accepted and ate non-vege stuff. There`s a verse, however, in the Bible indicating that Christ ate fish, a non-vege. But that`s another story.

Sant, believing is one thing. Seeing is another thing. In short, I don`t decide things based on information only. I have to see it in order to believe. This is what I think is knowledge. For example. I received an information from Mrs X that Mr X, a close relative have met an accident and needs my assistance to pay for his major operation. I have to see or call if possible Mr X first to verify if indeed Mr X is seriously ill before I decide to give money to Mrs X. Knowledge is obtained when I`m able to talk to Mr X on the phone or see him confined in the hospital.

In other words, Theist. Eternal punishment in hell according to Chandu which Sant have re-affirmed does exist but applicable only to our being forgetful of Krsna. So, the more we remember Krsna the more we attain freedom from hell. If I recall Srila Narada even went to hell not because he was punished but to remind the souls in hell to chant Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Swami Ramdev winning his argument, Homosexuality- a defect cured by Yoga, in the Supreme Court is like winning the lotto jackpot, Theist.

What I really mean is that when two people agree to disagree over an issue say, logic or knowledge even if both have already reached the same conclusion, one is urged to do something just to disagree. In chess, it`s called a perpetual check. In short, it`s a draw( nobody wins in the discussion).

Yes, Sant. I believe in eternal hell so we can agree to disagree.

I disagree with you Sant when you said there`s no such a thing as eternal hell. Only hell to agree.

Sant, did you agree with Primate to disagree?

Even if Yamaraja got killed by Lord Siva before hell was destroyed there will always be another Yamaraja to supervise hell`s caretakers, the yamadutas. Otherwise, they would indescriminately snatch without ado souls of dying people of Ajamila`s caliber and send them to hell even if they uttered unoffensively Narayana`s name.

How I wish we could go fishing, Primate. My father and I used to fish on a fish pond brimming with assorted fish grown for commercial use. We use chopped shrimps as bait for the bottom fish and shreds of lechon(roasted pig) to catch bangus(milk fish) that fllourished near the surface of the water. You must wonder why the surface milk fish loves to eat pork and the bottom fish crustaceans. Well, it was common knowledge that the owner of the fish pond owns a hospital where her left-overs are being fed to the fish by the care takers of the fish pond. However, there was an incident why I vowed not to fish again on that fish pond. When my father all alone fished on the day Jesus Christ died(Good Friday) several years ago. He caught a milk fish that flipped above the surface which unsnapped the hook that caught the fish. With one blink of the eye pierched my father`s right eye who did not wear his eye glasses that time. He drove straight home carrying several milk fish he caught with the hook in his right eye. Left the fish and directly went to the hospital owned by the owner of the fish pond where it was removed by his eye doctor friend.

When everything`s destroyed, Sant. There`s re-creation of heaven, purgatory, and hell. This is probably what I meant of eternal hell with Yamaraja still its warden. There`s always an end to the never- ending story and that` s during the time of dissolution. Yet when there`s rebuilding of what has been destroyed the same structures and systems comes back again. In other words, the whole jigamajig is a cycle.

Where logic ends, knowledge of the Absolute Truth begins.

I wish someday we can play mental golf, Sant. You and I with Visnu who carries a club. Oh how I just love to swing this driver club and whoOp! Propel that golf ball way up in the sky and cloOp! Score a hole in one! Wanna play 8 holes of golf, Primate?

Yes, Sant. I believe in eternal hell. You can go there if you like. But it doesn`t mean you will stay there for good except Yamaraja, a mahajana. He had no choice but stay in eternal hell. God gave him this assignment as hell`s eternal warden. There`s a temporary hell Christians may refer to as purgatory.

In the absence of Christ in Jesus, Sant, is a consideration he`s a myth. Just as the absence of Christ in Jesus as savior is a myth. Because we have faith Jesus is the Christ then he isn`t a myth to billions of Christians like me who believe Christ Jesus is God and Savior.

Yes. there`s indeed eternal hell, Sant. Try being inside a prison from 8am to 4pm, Monday to Friday. You`ll get to know what I mean. The fact is those who were given the sentence of life imprisonment is only an eye opener.

If Swami Ramdev`s petition to the Supreme Court is accepted then it`s a precedent to all the petitions that hold God as witness. Since as far as I know a motion to the court making God a witness to a crime is inadmissible evidence. A good example is the testimony from a criminal who confessed to a priest that he committed a henious crime. The word Yoga alone which means union with God may not sit well with the justices in the Supreme Court. May God enlighten them.

IN GOlf, if hole no. 1(Link 40) was this statement from you, Theist: WE WILL HAVE TO AGREE TO DISAGREE Melvin. It took me 10 strokes to hole no. 2(Link 50). While it took you only 2 strokes to hole no.3(Link 52). In answering this link, it will perhaps take me 5 strokes to hole no. 4(Link 57) so on and so forth. We will have to agree, therefore, to finish whatever we have discussed here in this thread on hole no. 18. Whoever has the number of strokes taken loses. Otherwise, the argument will never end. Unless, of course, we have to agree to disagree from now on. That would be a perpetual check in the game of chess.