gopidust

Srila Prabhupada quoted it. He was quoting Srila Bhaktisiddhanta at the time. So if we want to see Krishna we need to act in such a way as to make Krishna see us. In other words we have to follow the orders of guru,sadhu and sastra. Chant all of our rounds . Follow all of the regulative principles. And not demand to see Krishna just because we inattentively chanted our rounds for 3 weeks or 3 days or 3 years. Just be sincere and serious, which I am not! Still I have had the good fortune of a dream or two involving Lord Krishna in my life.

Ganesh wrote down all of the Vedic scriptures and I heard that muhammad received them from a higher source too, either angels or whatever. Ganesh heard them from Brahma?

It says in the Nectar of Instruction that one must be careful to accept an uttama-adhikari as a spiritual master because one cannot advance very well under the insufficient guidance of a kanistha. The devotees who stay in ISKCON longest are forced to become more and more pure. We cannot remain stagnent we either have to go up or fall down. Look toward the Senior Prabhupada gurus or if you are in the Matha other Senior devotees but except for rare circumstances one must take a spiritual master who is personally present. How else are you going to get initiated and receive personal guidance and instruction? IT JUST ISN'T DONE THE WAY THE RITVIK PEOPLE ARE IMAGINING. Prabhupada used the ritvik system to train his new disciples how to become gurus before he left the planet not to break the disciplic succession and ignore guru sadhu and sastra. Certainly at least you can find SOMEONE more advanced than you are can't you?

krishna sends his representatives according to time place and circumstances. in the bhagavatam it says those who murder brahmanas are born in the desert(Iraq, etc.) So Muhammad taught the "muslims" not to kill their daughters and bury them in the desert etc. because that is the level they were on. They are actually lower than Christian is it not? And Christians are lower than Hindus because at least Hindus are in the Vedic system.

Kalki comes riding a white horse with a battle axe and kills each and every human being on earth singlehandedly at various speeds such as the wind, the mind, etc. Don't know how to preach to your friend though. But there is a group that Lord Caitanya preached to in India who were Muslims i forgot their name and they converted.

Can you be a mixed devotee in the mood of the gopis or is that putting the cart before the horse? I have bathed in Radha kunda and felt some love of godhead but I also have a problem with illicit sex. Is it possible these two dilemas will rectify themselves somewhere down the line of my devotional service? Does anybody know?

Don't try to see Krishna, act in such a way that Krishna will want to see you.

I am unqualified to say but Srila Prabhupada said the husband must be attracted to Krishna and the wife should be attracted to the husband. So love or lust if you have a good husband and he loves krishna it doesn't matter how you love him, eventually when he goes back to godhead you will follow. Or Krishna will make you both become pure in this lifetime. I didn't mean anything by saying you were lusty I was just fooling around. But generally women are lustier than men in regards to household paraphernalia and all that. Oh you were asking Vanguard never mind then.

I may never deserve to have gopibhava or manjari bhava but when it says in NOI that whoever bathes in Radha kunda develops love of krishna in the wake of the gopis what does that mean? No I am not pure I am REALLY FALLEN but I still felt LOVE when I bathed there. What am I to do? Thank you Pankaja too.

I have heard the term before.

Are we allowed to pray to Radharani all the time if we want to instead of Lord Krishna? I have heard now that we can. Even Srila Prabhupada said it I was told and he was head of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, not Radharani consciousness. All I want to do is pray to Radharani 100% of the time. Is that alright? Srila Prabhupada said," I am always praying to Srimati Radharani not to fall down.". But does that mean we can pray to her for everything else that normally we would pray to Krishna for? For example if one is sick and needs shelter? Prabhupada gave us everything to become self-realised and just when we come to the point of realising we may be a manjari he left the planet. Isn't that what the sampradaya teaches? Oh Radharani, please make me your eternal maidservant! I only want to serve your servants. I do not want to serve Lord Krishna directly. I wish to be the servant of the servant of the dearmost servant of krishna.

There is no doubt you are a lusty young girl. You will eventually need to get married. You want to and you are attracted to a young boy, fine. But he may or may not want you. Pray to Lord Krishna for a suitable husband. If you are so attracted to this man then try to let him know through a third party and take the risk that's all you can do. Or you can approach a temple authority if that is the case. But if he isn't interested in you then you may have to repeat this scenario over and over just to try to find a husband who likes you. Krishna may want you to suffer for a while before allowing you to marry also. Ultimately everything is up to Krishna. As far as your guilt over being unchaste, don't worry about it. You are chaste as long as you don't engage in illicit sex and wait for a proper husband. Just remain steady in your desire to marry a devotee somehow or other and Krishna will fulfill it. Or you can pray to Radharani I found out recently also. Is that true?

In the Srimad Bhagavatam we learn of Narada muni seeing Krishna in a previous life for only a moment and then Krishna's going away. This was to increase his desire to see krishna and thus to act in such a way as to become qualified. In Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu his life and precepts Bhaktivinode Thakura mentions a curtain of maya and how Krishna can lift it or put it back depending on his will. We can pray for Krishna to lift this curtain. I was fortunate to have it lifted somewhat when I went to Vrndavana only to have it lower again after I left. I did not even realise how this happened until afterwards. Krsna dasa's desire to see Krishna the Supreme will certainly be fulfilled. Unless he "bloops" of course.(just kidding) /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Do they change the words of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta too? In his books and magazines I mean? To fit the mood of their particular matha? Who would dare to change the words, in English, of the previous acaryas? There is no need for interpretation as in the books of Srila Prabhupada.

It appears that the quotation we are looking for has been taken out altogether in the booklet by Bhaktivinode Thakura sri caitanya mahaprabhu his life and precepts. I read the whole thing and nothing was mentioned there about the personality soon to come. That is why I would like to read the original booklet for myself without words being cut out or added. I am talking about the copy posted on the thread here. Why do the various branches of the Matha have to change everything to suit their own different philosophies? Especially the words of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura /images/graemlins/confused.gif

I needed to hear that. Why do those women in Vrdavana hit you with sticks? Do they think they are gopis and you are a cowherd boy? That is what somebody told me.

Shambu it minimises the position of Srila Prabhupada to say he is not the one predicted and therefore we need not listen to him. I don't know the motive of the godbrother mentioned however maybe this was not his motive.

The problem is since Srila Prabhupada in later years remained more aloof than in the beginning in regards to associating so intimately with his disciples his newer successors continue to follow in his footsteps. If a new devotee wants to know about a guru, first of all we are not allowed to ask if the guru chants his rounds because that is an offense! We just have to accept that he does because our prospective godbrothers say he does. Why can't we actually see for ourselves our prospective guru chant even one round in public? If we ask to then we are told our guru in not proselytising for new disciples and we can forget the whole thing. We cannot see our guru because all of the Senior devotees of Srila Prabhupada need to be able to call each other at a moment's notice to discuss vital preaching plans and so on. And that is why our guru need not go to class like the rest of the devotees. He is so important he cannot be bothered with going to the temple but needs to stay in his disciples houses with their surrendered wives who love nothing better than serving the gurus and advanced devotees while the poor devotees at the temple receive no association at all. And in the Gaudiya Matha I heard the gurus don't always want to be bothered either or else they may have to give up thinking about krishna to be bothered by the problems of their disciples. So they just shake their heads from side to side as Indians do. As new devotees we should have the right to question our prospective guru just like Srila Prabhupada did with Srila Bhaktisiddhanta. At least externally since Prabhupada said he only asked one question of his guru,"How may i serve you?"

In the Lilamrta Prabhupada was asked by an early disciple whether he was a kanistha adhikari or what kind of devotee he was. He replied,'that is not a question one should ask his guru'. That is a humble answer for an uttama-adhikari. But for a kanistha adhikari it could be a bluff. Why is it such a crime for a kanistha guru, whether in the former GM or ISKCON, to just come out and say they are kanistha adhikaris when they are? Why are they still maintaining these false facades trying to fool their disciples who ultimately realise this and go away looking for an uttama-adhikari elsewhere. The problem arises for example when the guru does something not even approved of by his godbrothers and then when the guru's disciples ask questions in class about these things the godbrothers chastise the disciples for the guru then after class laugh among themselves about the very same thing they chastised the disciple for asking about. I could be more specific but don't want to be offensive. Being an uttama-adhikari Srila Prabhupada also had to tell his early disciples things to help their spiritual lives such as to stay away from certain godbrothers of his because if they say anything different the devotees would become confused. And the proof is that the very first disciple who left Prabhupada for ++++ Maharaja ultimately became disillusioned with both of them and left both ISKCON and the GM altogether. I am not blaming ++++ Maharaja but if he had sent the disciple back to Prabhupada right away this might not have happened. Yes there have been gurus so advanced they can take someone else's disciple and teach them more than their original guru could. But if someone is so less advanced than the original guru and try to do the same thing well I don't know what the reaction will be. Everyone seems to be following one piece of advice of Srila Prabhupada anyway, don't answer the question of what kind of guru you are, whether kanistha, madhyama or uttama. But did even Prabhupada mean this as an instruction for all gurus and all time or was it specific to himself according to time place and circumstances? Does anyone have an idea?

or can we approach radharani directly? this is a serious question.

Srila Prabhupada said it was significant that the book was written the year of his birth. Did Srila Bhaktisiddhanta claim he was the one predicted after he already had appeared or did the GM devotees just figure it would be him? Did Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura say this was the one? We know Srila Bhaktisiddhanta was certainly the one Bhaktivinode had prayed for earlier because of the incident with the ratha cart stopping in front of his house and the garland falling on the then young boy. It sounds like there is too much speculation going on.

No I don't have the exact quote although it may be quoted in the Srila Prabhupada lilamrta. The book was sent to a college in New York in 1896 along with to other places by Bhaktivinode Thakura himself. It would be ecstatic if someone were to do a reprinting of it. I saw some of it printed up somewhere but can't remember anymore where. ys gopidust

After the divine appearance of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura his father, Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura printed a book,Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in 1896, where he stated, soon will come a personality who will spread krishna consciousness around the world. Srila Prabhupada appeared late in the year. It stands to reason that Srila Prabhupada is the personality so predicted by the Thakur Bhaktivinode. It is also written in the sastra, that without being empowered by Krishna one cannot spread the krishna consciousness movement around the world.

Do you want to enjoy female company like krishna? Do you want to serve krishna like the gopis? Srila Bhaktisiddhanta said,"don't try to see krishna, act in such a way that krishna will want to see you.". Krsna dasa, what is your desire? /images/graemlins/confused.gif

The 'guest' who cannot speak English are you a follower of Gour Govinda Swami who left ISKCON to follow Narayana Maharaja? I"ve heard that he never even said to do that? Where did so many of you get that idea all at the same time?GGs tried to get devotees who left ISKCON for the GGM to return back to ISKCON. It's one thing if you join the GGM first before hearing about ISKCON,but it's another thing altogether if you leave ISKCON in the name of following your guru maharaja when he said not to.