sambya

and finally did you get a guru ?

sanskrit proverb-- "durvalasya valam raajaa vaalaanaam rodanam valam. valam murkhasya mounitvam chouraanaamanritam valam." raja or king is the strength of the weak , crying is the strength of a child , silence is the strength of a fool and speaking lies are the strength of a thief !! always remember that ranjeet !!!!

hinduism didnt have any method of conversion . but in history we do find many instances where other people of foreign lands adopted hinduism without opposition from the hindus . just like the greek generals of alexander adopted to hindu religion and finally got merged in the society ! all this happened because of the broad accomodating nature of this religion. and by the principle of 'sanatana dharma' true dharma is eternal and irrespective of place and nationality . when hindu emperors from south india colonised south east asia they brought the culture , texts ,gods and brahmins of india with them to those lands . and slowly the native people got 'converted' to hinduism . many of them remains a hindu till this day . and they are also counted as hindu even in most orthodox places in india . a group of balinese hindus were given admission into jaggannath puri !! this is also an indication of being a hindu without having born into it .

beautiful !!!!!

yes that is also a nice determinant . as i said before , there are many ways to verify if a process is effective ! thats a nice point ! what if the shisya is already quite advanced ? but then again finding a guru is predestined and direct manifestation of god's will. so any well advanced shishya would never find a worthless guru . circumstances would automatically drw him to someone genuine and powerfull in spiritual world !

these are all very relative terms and multiple explantions and answers may be provided .......................... but i shall try to give one line answers.......... when he follows the words of his guru with genuine love,perfect belief, undeterred enthusiasm and till last breath. if even one shishya can be liberated from the material world. much more tough to answer . if it survives through time it might be a good determining point . insignificant movements perish or crumble within a short time after their stipulated work in this world is finished . but most importantly how much positive things it is giving to mankind . positive things include spiritual knowledge and many other things . because a spiritual movement is complete renewal of dried life force in every field , spiritual ,material , wealth , literary , sociological , cutural ,educational, etc. think of the spiritual movement of mahaprabhu to compare this . in ideal sense , when you see god personally ! in a narrrower sense , when you make steady progress . progress might falter many times but it should rise up in long term - like the stock exchange charts rectfying itself after corrections . if you feel the bliss yourself and there in an increase in displeasure of wordly things . for example sometimes after spending a wonderfull spiritual day you caome back and hear some ordinary song playing in the television which becomes unbearable to your ears . quite suprisingly the same song might be very appealing the rest of the time . there are times when you feel disgusted with other people around you incessantly talking anout material chores and you feel like running away and cry . maybe such feeling indicate that your sadhana is going right . but alas , how long can we hold on to that rare moments of divine sadness ??

does he ? thought so !!

there is another more practical explanation of this rule-- it was an attempt to protect the temple from repeated attacks in the hands of muslim invaders by barring the entry of non-hindus altogether !!

HA HA HA HA HA HA

Modern Puri resulted out of an amalgamation of different forces and synthesis of different cultures . Historians and scholars opine that on the present site of Jagannath temple once stood the famous buddhist monastery of Puri which housed the famed tooth relic of sri Gautama Buddha , the ruins of which now lies buried below the low hillock later named as Nila-Parvat , on which the present temple was built ! During war and other tensions in the kingdom the precious relic was carried to the island of Ceylon( present day Sri Lanka ) by the prince and the princess of the royality dressed as poor brahmins . To this day the tooth has remained in Sri Lanka . After the shifting of the relic the monastery fell to neglect and was soon abondoned , later to be taken over by the Hindus with their post buddhist era revival . Jagannath is also probably the most humansitic deity of India . He eats a lavish meal , goes to sleep . takes a luxurious bath on Snanayatra and then falls sick ( when royal physicians come with ayurvedic medicines to heal him) and finally goes on a pleasure vacation on rathaytra after he recovers !! And after twelve years he also leaves his body to get reincarnated !! A prime example to the divine play between bhakta and bhagavan . Rathaytra was a common festival in ancient India . Different temples and different sects had their own chariot festivals at different times of the year . But slowly most of them died down . The strange thing is that in Puri the main vigraha is taken out in ratha instead of the pratibhu murtis , as done in southern temples . The temple premises also has the Suryadeva temple where the original diety of Suntemple Konark is supoosed to be hidden since its fall in the hands of invaders centuries ago . On entering this temple one can see the brass diety of Surya Deva . But the original stone diety is hidden beneath this 'false' brass one . One can see the original diety by requesting the priest in charge and offering some small donation !!! On request he lights up a match or takes the lamp behind the brass diety and leads you the way to the dark interiors where after peeping in , you can see the beautiful meditative face of Sun hidden in absolute darkness !!! Sri Kshetra is also a Devi Peetha and home of Vimala Devi . The same spot is the place where the nabhi or navel of Sati fell after Vishnu cut off her lifeless body into 51 peices in an attempt to pacify Mahadeva who was at fury on death of his beloved . Legend has it that Vimala was the original occupier of the premises when Jagannath wanted residence . Vimala laid one condition to allow him entry . She said that the bhoga of Jagannath after being offered to him shall be first offered to her before anyone else , and it was on this condition that he was allowed an entry into the temple . Inspite of being one of the four dhams and the seat of vaishnava learning Vimala Devi is offered a goat sacrifice on the day of the Durgaashtami , within the temple premises !! The animal is brought in at midnight after Jagannath dev is put to sleep and the remains are taken out through the back door and the blood washed clean before daybreak !! Every Devi Peetha is the home to a particular devi with Shiva in his form as bhairav as her companion and protector of the peetha . In amarnath the bhairav is Umaanada , in Vrindavan he is Bhutesh ,etc . The strange thing is that in Jagannath Puri the Bhairav of Devi is Jagannath Dev himself !! This makes Jagannath identical with Shiva and husband or companion of Vimala . but Baladeva being the Sankarsana is also suppossed to be the expansion of Shiva . It is indeed a strange combination that we see in this holy place . The divine trinity all in the same temple -- Shiva as Baladeva , Yogamaya Durga as Subhadra and Vishnu or Krishna as Jagannath . How this seemingly impossible combination of Shakta Shaiva Vaishnavas has been achived is a mystery ! Maybe the lord himself continues with his divine and secret play in this sacred land to achieve the impossible . Nilachala adhisthata Jagannath mahaprabhu jayatu !

I feel good natured soft hearted material people are far better than overtly religious people . there are religious people here in india that would feed the crows everyday and then go on to exploit poor people the very next moment . just think of how 'religious' these marwari shets are , as an example !! its better to lead a moral and just life than be religious . but if someone is spiritual in a true sense , or at least tires to be so , then that individual is surely a boon to the society . i think its a sense of egoism that makes us proclaim that we are spiritual . we are all very material except that we spend some amount of time in thinking about matters of spirit . that might be the only difference from the so called material persons . moreover i dont think anyone can be truly spiritual without realising god himself . before that we are all trying to be spiritual !

an idiot was very fond of stealing bananas offered to lord in the puja room . every day when the head of the family would close the doors of the room after offering bhoga he would quietly sneak into the room and gobble up the bananas from the plate . the head of the family would get very upset on finding that out . but no matter how hard he tried he couldnt catch the thief . one day as the head of the family was resting in his easy-chair after having offered some delicious fresh bananas to the lord , he heard some suspicious noises from the puja room above . he immideately shouted " who is there ? " the idiot immideately replied , " its me oh sir , and i am not the one who eats your bananas everyday !!!!!!!!!! " Since then bengali people use the proverb - " im not the one who eats your bananas everyday !!! " HA HA HA HA ....................

maybe you are not aqquainted with archana manuals . vishnu is considred trigunatit by vaishnvas . why is blue aparajita or red sandal tamisic ? yes i do ! ill repeat what i have said previously with the hope you understand that !! --any ritual is not spiritual in strict sense . rituals are merely conducive to purity and spirituality in varying degrees . and sacrifice obviously occupies a lower rank among them !

any ritual is not spiritual in strict sense . rituals are merely conducive to purity and spirituality in varying degrees . and sacrifice obviously occupies a lower rank among them ! they do , but maybe not to your understanding ! BTW sacrifices were there in vedic times also . infact no proper festivals could go without sacrifice......................and more ghastly and shocking than todays sacrifice ............................... bulls , cows , horses !!! saying this just as a way of information .

why wouldnt i answer this ?!!! yes they dont sacrifice females animals because they are the mother . males are fathers as well ! but these are pure rituals undertaken by men desiring material benedictions which have very less connection with spirituality or self purification . i cannot comment why sacrificing males has been allowed . no shastric explanation has come to my knowledge till date . it is simply allowed ................. cannot say why !! just like red hibiscus or blue aparajita flowers are not allowed for vishnu ................ no shastra says why !! yes , they might say red is a ugra colour ( what about blue ?) . but thats not a explanation in itself . an explanation would clear all doubts as to why ugra flower is not to be offered to vishnu who is also ugra at times (narasimha or varaha or kalki) . same is the case with the case of sacrifice ...........theres no proper explantion to my knowledge ! but unlike you , i dont bother myself with such petty issues like why red sandal is forbidden in vishnu worship or why should one not sleep with head facing the south !! i have more interesting and spiritual matters to concentrate on !!

in the site the bengali name was given caman gola which is a direct translation of cannon ball . but traditional bengali name is naagchampa or naagkesar . the trees are huge in size . luckily the flowers bloom near the base of the trunk where it is easy to collect . i have one such plant at my place of residence . unfortunately the flowers tend to rot very easily as they are fleshy and one might find it unsuitable for archana .

female sacrifice ?!!! do you mean female goats ? then the answer is no . only male animals are offered , if at all .

thats solves the problem . as to why the method of puja is so different in nepal and in india . thats why the nepalis elect a kumari and keep her all year round instead of a small one day service !!

GV have their own interpratations of monism through the achintya bhedabheda theory . i have absolutely no objection with that . every school has their own interpretations . but they(GV) have incomplete conceptions about the monism of sankaracharya . rather they sometimes try to pass on their own monism as that of sankaracharya . this is precisely what i noticed in the last sloka ! I saw someone on this forum speak of nirvikalpa as false . that was long back and i dont remember which thread it was in , and obviously he was misinformed .

its not about defaming prabhupada ! check out the meaning of the word defaming . did he say anything false ? to think and use your own brain and at the same time keep unmoved faith in god is a rare capability . if i shut my senses to all other philosophies and to the world and remain trapped inside my own world called god , that is one way and i think over what i recieve with my senses and yet keep unflinching faith in what i believe is another ! he is not derogating prabhupada . mere stating of what one percieves as facts cannot amount to defaming !!!

absolutely correct !!

there is no possible way to make you understand the point that im making unless you develop some elementary knowledge of sanskrit !! the words specifically speak about nirvikalpa and advaita and gyana in its truest and purest sense . even in the translation it is expressed as such . but in the purports it is said that these are monists but their oneness is not absolute oneness . now which word in this sloka mentions that it is not absolute oneness ? anyways its worthless to converse with you unless you come back with a sanskrit dictionary in hand !!!

your question itself carries the answer !! all indians agree on evrything . which means all indians agree on all religions of this world . this means all indians accept all religions . this indicates that they never went to convert or murder non-believers ! that is precisely why there is more religions in this country than anywhere else in this world !! and roman catholicism is precisely why there is no other religion in the land that you were unfortunately born into .

sorry , but this purport is simply false ! just read through the original sanskrit , transliteration and the translations and you have the answer . a prime example of iskconic deformation !!

thank you kulapavana for providing these slokas . and thousand thanks to krishna for giving you the eyes to love him without hating others . i remeber that in some old thread there was some arguments about nirvikalpa being false . just see this verse , clear and specific mention of nirvikalpa .