armisael108

The age the scientist give is about 4.55 billions years, with an extraordinary value of confidence +-1%. 230 million over Brahma's day ..., but then there is the 'young Earth' scientists which can go to a few thousands of years!!! Until they all agree to one date... they are ALL wrong.

Just on top of my head, I know that the night is not that soon. We are during manu 7 (or 8), of 14 manus in a day of lord Brahma. We are in the 28th Manvantara of this manu, who lives for a bit more than 71 manvantaras. For the partial destruction of the universe during Brahma's night, it is explained in Canto Three Chapter 11: 29. When the night of Brahma ensues, all the three worlds are out of sight, and the sun and the moon are without glare, just as in the due course of an ordinary night. 30. The devastation takes place due to the fire emanating from the mouth of Sankarsana, and thus great sages like Bhrgu and other inhabitants of Maharloka transport themselves to Janaloka, being distressed by the warmth of the blazing fire which rages through the three worlds below. 31. At the beginning of the devastation all the seas overflow, and hurricane winds blow very violently. Thus the waves of the seas become ferocious, and in no time at all the three worlds are full of water. 32. The Supreme Lord, the Personality of Godhead, lies down in the water on the seat of Ananta, with His eyes closed, and the inhabitants of the Janaloka planets offer their glorious prayers unto the Lord with folded hands. Maybe a bit figurative, but as plausible as the Big Bang, string theory, etc...

From what I understand we souls are 'cit', Krishna only removes the 'avidya', this material 'knowledge' of desiring sense enjoyment. When the heart accepts the knowledge fully, the soul has cut down all ignorance with the weapon of knowledge that Krishna gives us. Check B.G. 3.42: "Therefore the doubts which have arisen in your heart out of ignorance should be slashed by the weapon of knowledge. Armed with yoga, O Bhärata, stand and fight." There is also such a mention in S.B. 11.12.24 "With steady intelligence you should develop unalloyed devotional service by careful worship of the spiritual master, and with the sharpened ax of transcendental knowledge you should cut off the subtle material covering of the soul. Upon realizing the Supreme Personality of Godhead, you should then give up that ax of analytic knowledge." hope this helped, your servant

"A sober person who can tolerate the urge to speak, the minds demands, the actions of anger and the urges of the tongue, belly and genitals is qualified to make disciples all over the world." Sri Isopanisad, text 1. **** It is not from Isopanishad, but Nectar of Instruction, Text 1. Just to clear the minds of those looking for the nice purports of Srila Prabhupada and realizing that Isopanishad T.1 is not it. For those who have N.O.I., I recommend reading the purport of this verse, Prabhupada gives some many practical methods to get rid of those urges. Jaya Srila Prabhupada!!

Just chant the maha-mantra any time. Make sure you prepared yourself in your mind so that your only thought is Krishna when leaving, either expectedly or not. Read Bhagavad-gita 8.5-6 and their purports from Srila Prabhupada.

No according to Srila Prabhupada. He said something in the likes: "Yes we can look at women, but we cannot look at them lustfully." (I presume it goes for the opposite sex also) I'm sorry if my initial response seemed to accuse you, but in the same way I felt unjustfully accused when you said that men only want sex. If only you knew how much I had to go through before meeting the Krishna conscious devotees, you would understand why I really felt unjustfully accused of only wanting sex with women. In the present day society it seems so weird for a guy not to want a gf in highschool. I'm homosexual apparently...

anyways, I want to apologize if my last post seemed offensive or a directed attack. It wasn't meant to be. I'll share with you a little something that happened with a devotee female friend of mine. We were at a Ratha-yatra's book distributing counter and she pointed me a group of girls. All dressed in saris. I said yeah what? She said look at how they are showing off. huh? I replied. Look at how they are acting, they have so much make-up, jewels and (stuff I don't remember). I said: "Yes but you look much better, you don't want to show off with artificial stuff. You show off the real stuff, your knowledge of Krishna." Then some people came at the kiosk, the conversation ended there. Hare Krishna, your servant

Yes men like to look, men in general are the agressors and women the victims, that is natural. Even Prabhupada wrote it somewhere... I can't remember exactly where in the Bhagavatam. read my post better you will see that I simply neutralized the initial post, putting a -1 to a 1 then adding the gender neutral agent: "Both sexes are to blame for this problem because they identify too much with this perishable body." Or did you forget this sentence already since I seemed to have blamed women. I don't really care, because even men like to show off. Men also like to comb their hair, put nice perfume, dress with spiffy clothes. This mating ritual of the sexes is just inevitable when men and women reach their puberty. We see it in all animals, and humans are animals too. Humans have something more though... a better understanding of spirituality, although most humans will stay at the level of animal society of eating, sleeping, mating and defending.

it is a specific symptom of irresponsability on both sides. We should not forget that most women want to show themselves, and this is irresponsible of them. Both sexes are to blame for this problem because they identify too much with this perishable body.

Haribol, What advice you want? Relating to your statement: "Most of the people feel very uncomfortable, when I am around." I'm just like you, but one thing is that people often project how they feel on others. Are you not the one who is uncomfortable when around others? I'm saying this because it is the case for me, I am uncomfortable and this feeling of paranoia gets others uncomfortable. All my life I've been accusing others of rejecting me... when lately I realized I'm the one rejecting others. Start trusting yourself then you'll be happy. You are skeptic about your own ability to trust. BTW if you think I'm just saying this without having experienced and gone through it... try me, you'll be surprised.

Yeah me too, I often thought that the world would be better without me. Such fool am I, the fact is the world wouldn't change one bit without me. So I persist. I've seen it as a attempt to get away from material life. So taking to bhakti-yoga is my 'suicide', material suicide :-p

He's afraid that God is going to lose all patience and pull the rug from underneath him. *** He needs this because it is useless to go through atonement unless the roots of desires are pulled out. See this: "SB 6.1.11. Sukadeva Gosvami, the son of Vedavyasa, answered: My dear King, since acts meant to neutralize impious actions are also fruitive, they will not release one from the tendency to act fruitively. Persons who subject themselves to the rules and regulations of atonement are not at all intelligent. Indeed, they are in the mode of darkness. Unless one is freed from the mode of ignorance, trying to counteract one action through another is useless because this will not uproot one's desires. Thus even though one may superficially seem pious, he will undoubtedly be prone to act impiously. Therefore real atonement is enlightenment in perfect knowledge, Vedanta, by which one understands the Supreme Absolute Truth." Krishna even says that to those He is merciful He removes all material capacities so that the soul will surrender to Krishna's will instead of his mind's will.

I personally don't think that it is critical to remember the verses by heart. It is better to understand and apply in one's life. We should not become parrots who simply repeat what we heard. When I read Prabhupada's books and understand a little section, verse, sentence... I try to see it in my life and apply the knowledge by changing according to my understanding. Suta goswami said in SB 1.18.23: "As the birds fly in the sky as far as their capacity allows, so do the learned devotees describe the Lord as far as their realization allows." that's all, our realizations and applications make us remember verses, purports, etc...

I'll simply ask you this... which Kapila is he talking about? Prabhupada warned us about the cheater atheist Kapila that brought atheistic sankhya philosophy. We do accept sankhya philosophy propounded by the Kapiladeva, son of Devahuti, in the 3rd canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Read Chapters (I think) 24 to 28 or something around that in 3rd canto.

Sri Narada Muni said: O brahmanas, it is not so amazing that in his eagerness to know, Vasudeva has asked us about his ultimate benefit, for he considers Krsna a mere boy. In this world familiarity breeds contempt. For example, one who lives on the banks of the Ganges might travel to some other body of water to be purified. (SB 10.84.30-31) **** Aren't those verses SOOOOOOOOOOOOO important? This disease of familiarity with people, our job, our devotional service. OH stupid mind why does he become familiar? I see it around me, I even did it to, lost respect after some time with people. By becoming familiar with people, we become selfish always asking for something for myself instead of asking "how can I serve you?" Even when I chant the Mahamantra, I still can't be in this mood of asking Their Lordships Sri-Sri Radha-Madhava "How can I serve you?", no I ask Them something for my selfish needs. Familiarity causes me to lose respect... it causes me to forget I am a servant.

if one has basic difficulties in practising krsna consciousness there's no hope that he can hear supersoul directly ***** I know that's why in the next sentence I wrote: "The Supersoul will send someone to help you if you can listen." Can you listen to a bona fide spiritual master? I can guarantee you he was sent by the Supersoul. It depends on trust also. We can't be helped by someone we distrust.

The question is can you be able to accept the help someone may offer you? I personally know that I can't. I know that when I ask help from my temple president and he gives and very kind hearted help. I simply move away in fear. We may ask for help but do we listen to our closest friend the SuperSoul giving us all support we need? The Supersoul will send someone to help you if you can listen. I'm not saying you can't listen, just ask and see the response of those advanced devotees in the forum. (I also hope I can learn from this guidance, I too am hiding some problems...)

forgot to login it was me

My dear prabhu the only person you can cheat is yourself. And the verse speaks about those who show renunciation but their mind dwells in sense gratification. One way to see it is for someone to take sannyasa, but still has sex desire. He is cheating himself badly. In the purport Prabhupada also denounces such yogis making a show-bottle meditation. A show bottle is nice on the outside, but it has no substance inside. This is the cheating, you cheat yourself from having the thick nectar of krishna-prema.

My dear prabhu the only person you can cheat is yourself. And the verse speaks about those who show renunciation but their mind dwells in sense gratification. One way to see it is for someone to take sannyasa, but still has sex desire. He is cheating himself badly. In the purport Prabhupada also denounces such yogis making a show-bottle meditation. A show bottle is nice on the outside, but it has no substance inside. This is the cheating, you cheat yourself from having the thick nectar of krishna-prema.

I think you have exposed a 'weakness'in this parampara's metaphysics concerning the mind. That is a good thing as it will make people become more aware of the subject. ********* You are quite right, ever since I joined ISKCON I've been asking myself this same question that our guest has asked about the mind. Nobody I met gave me an answer I wanted. As our guest, I was wondering about the mind because I'm supposed to control it. That's why my 'best' answer on the mind was that energetic thingy. I've realized with the years is that even though I may find the answer of what is the mind, the process of controlling the mind, given by the guru, surpasses the knowledge of what is the mind. But I'm still interested in knowing what is the mind because I know I associate with it too much /images/graemlins/wink.gif

I think you have exposed a 'weakness'in this parampara's metaphysics concerning the mind. That is a good thing as it will make people become more aware of the subject. ********* You are quite right, ever since I joined ISKCON I've been asking myself this same question that our guest has asked about the mind. Nobody I met gave me an answer I wanted. As our guest, I was wondering about the mind because I'm supposed to control it. That's why my 'best' answer on the mind was that energetic thingy. I've realized with the years is that even though I may find the answer of what is the mind, the process of controlling the mind, given by the guru, surpasses the knowledge of what is the mind. But I'm still interested in knowing what is the mind because I know I associate with it too much /images/graemlins/wink.gif

Srimad Bhagavatam on the mind: 1.2.33. The Supersoul enters into the bodies of the created beings who are influenced by the modes of material nature and causes them to enjoy the effects of these modes by the subtle mind. 3.26.27. From the false ego of goodness, another transformation takes place. From this evolves the mind, whose thoughts and reflections give rise to desire. So this is the mind, its function is to accept and reject (or desire) based on sense perception and gratification. Hope this helped.

Srimad Bhagavatam on the mind: 1.2.33. The Supersoul enters into the bodies of the created beings who are influenced by the modes of material nature and causes them to enjoy the effects of these modes by the subtle mind. 3.26.27. From the false ego of goodness, another transformation takes place. From this evolves the mind, whose thoughts and reflections give rise to desire. So this is the mind, its function is to accept and reject (or desire) based on sense perception and gratification. Hope this helped.

Depends on your original form in relation to Krishna. Some soul are blades of grass in Goloka-vrindavana, some are gopis, some are cows, some are rocks, etc. But like Prabhupada said, all are fully conscious of their individual service to Krishna. (I can't say I understand this but I have faith in what Prabhupada said) In the spiritual world the soul IS the body. (You know, there is a place in the scriptures where it is said that the senses can act as other senses in the spiritual world) Contrarely to the soul in the conditioned state. So a soul can have hair if his eternal form is a form with hair.