Jahnava Nitai Das

I never made such an accusation. You missed the point of the statement. The fact that Prabhupada initiated many disciples without having physically seen them shows that physical proximity to the guru is not important. No, both are equally complete and transcendental. To state vani plus vapu is "the complete picture" implies that vani alone is the incomplete picture. The form of the spiritual master is present within his instructions. By following the instructions of the guru, his transcendental form is revealed. Srila Prabhupada's own view on this matter is relevent:

How many people were initiated by Prabhupada via letter and taperecorder, without once having personal sight of his divine grace? What does this show us regarding the argument, "You need to be in the physical presence of the guru"? It shows us that it is nonsense. Serving the mission of the spiritual master and holding his instructions as our life and soul is what is truly important. Sadhu-sanga is not limited to a physical body composed of material elements.

This is only true with material things. All knowledge comes from Krishna in the heart, and it is revealed according to our surrender and sincerity. It does not depend on material circumstances, learning, education, proximity to the teacher, etc. The spiritual master's words are chaitanya-rasa-vigraha, they are full of life, not the dead sound that we experience every day. One who judges Krishna's form to be supperior to Krishna's name is ignorant of the transcendental nature of both. One who judges the physical presence of the guru to be superior to the instructions of the guru is equally ignorant. Proximity to the guru is not measured in mundane space. If it were so, then the mosquitoes bitting Prabhupada would have been the closest and most advanced. One who holds the guru's instructions as his life and sole is truly situated next to the spiritual master.

Actually the alleged reference isn't found in Gaudiya Kantahara as far as I am aware. What Gaudiya Kantahara does say is as follows: Thus a clear distinction is made between Shiva and Vishnu with reference to the conclusions of the Bhagavatam.

Your right, we live in a time when terrorists from Pakistan plant bombs in our temples and send suicide squads into our famous temples to kill pilgrims. Black belt karate won't do anything to stop them. It was reported in the papers that the terrorists who attacked the Akshardham temple in Gujarat had also planned to attack the ISKCON temple in Bangalore. The CBI informed our temple and now there are extra unarmed security checking everyone who enters. Two months ago they stopped me for trying to carry a rechargeable battery into the temple. I'm sure they all congratulated each other on a job well done. But let's see what they do when a suicide squad from Kashmir comes at them with machine guns and grenades.

My view is that we don't need to Veda-ize other religions to validate them in our minds. There are non-Vedic religions, and there are good, universal principles taught in them that may lead to purification and advancement. The view that all religions are actually the same, all derived from the Vedas in ancient times, etc., seems to be stretching things too much. Unfortunately it is often a popular view amongst devotees (just read Steven Rosen's books). There are different religions, within those religions there are different teachings, and the destinations of the practitioners will be different. The Bhagavatam, being a literature for the top most rasika bhaktas (i.e. not us), is very strict in its definitions of dharma and rejects virtually everything that does not lead directly to bhagavata-prema. As such, even the paths of karma, jnana, and mixed bhakti are all rejected, what to speak of other religious paths. Our acharya's are so strict in this that they reject the writings of those great devotees who have a slight tinge of impersonalism. For example Mahaprabhu rejected Jagannath Das, the author of Oriya Bhagavatam, which appears to common people to be pure devotional sentiment (i.e. bhakti); Bhaktisiddhanta rejected the songs of Mirabhai, which are also full of devotional sentiment; and Prabhupada rejected the writings of Tulsidas, which also appear to be filled with bhakti for Lord Ram. Who can honestly say that the paths of devotion given by Jagannath Das, Tulsidas and Mirabai, should be rejected, but the path given by Mohammad is somehow a path equal to bhakti-marga that comes to the same point of realization. How is it that Oriya Bhagavatam that speaks directly of Lord Krishna's pastimes is impure literature, but the Koran that speaks about invading your neighbors lands is a pure scripture? There is certainly a double standard amongst devotees in general. Those who follow Mirabai and Tulsidas are not bonafide, but someone who follows the Koran and whose main religious festivals revolve around personally slitting the throats of cows and watching them bleed to death in pain, is going to attain Vaikuntha. Such a ludicrous position is propogated by many devotees in the name of harmony and broadmindedness. Tulsidas Ramayana is not pure, but scriptures of other religions such as Koran and Bible, despite being interpolated and manipulated for thousands of years by men, are pure and on the level of Bhagavatam. Thus it is only fair for us (ISKCON/devotees in general)to be criticized by the Hindu community for propogating such absurd views. On one side we condemn saints like Tuslidas as impure, but we hold the Koran and Bible to be pure and equal to the Bhagavatam.

Actually there shouldn't be any dot. The dot negates the vowel 'A' that is connected to all Tamil consonants. With the dot on the 'N' it would be "Helen", not "Helena".

If that is the case then all religions must be measured against the Vedas and supplementary literature, which would thereby disqualify virtually all modern religions commonly referred to as non-Vedic. In other words it is impossible to claim all world religions as Vedic (i.e. following the Vedas), by virtue of the fact that the Vedas refute their validity. Our scriptures have interesting names for religions that do not conform to the teachings of the Vedas, such as kaitava-dharma, mleccha-dharma, chala-dharma, etc. It is clear from these names that the "all paths are equal leading to the same goal" view is not supported within Vedic scriptures. Vidharma, paradharma, upadharma, dharmabhasa and chala-dharma are the five forms of irreligion according to the Bhagavatam. It is interesting to note that their foundation is dharma, a semblance of religiousity. Bhaktivinoda Thakur writes in this regard:

That is only when there is no vowel connected with the consonant. The picture above was correct.

You can read this article: "Siddhis, Riddhis and Mystical Experiences" http://www.indiadivine.org/tattva12.htm Other articles are present here: http://www.indiadivine.org/tattva.htm

This is in reference to one who attains liberation after being conditioned, not to an eternally liberated soul who descended to deliver the fallen living entities. The pure devotee is eternally situated in Goloka Vrindavan seeing Lord Krishna face to face.

Your IP is an exact match of another registered user who is a close friend of Audarya Lila prabhu and who has contributed in many other threads of Audarya Lila's in his defense. You can try to play games, but that is not adviseable. Regardless, guests are not allowed to attack other users, so such posts of yours are not welcome.

Your IP is an exact match of another registered user who is a close friend of Audarya Lila prabhu and who has contributed in many other threads of Audarya Lila's in his defense. You can try to play games, but that is not adviseable. Regardless, guests are not allowed to attack other users, so such posts of yours are not welcome.

Your post was really quite shallow and cowardly, just a bunch of personal insults directed to Krishna S. questioning his spiritual practices and sincereity. At least have the guts to sign your name. My guess is that you are a registered member here and therefore violating the policies of the board by attacking another user without identifying yourself.

Your post was really quite shallow and cowardly, just a bunch of personal insults directed to Krishna S. questioning his spiritual practices and sincereity. At least have the guts to sign your name. My guess is that you are a registered member here and therefore violating the policies of the board by attacking another user without identifying yourself.

No Narasimha temple in India offers meat to the diety. Krishna is present in the hearts of all living entities as Paramatma. When we kill other living entities we are torturing the supersoul who is the witness of their pain.

No Narasimha temple in India offers meat to the diety. Krishna is present in the hearts of all living entities as Paramatma. When we kill other living entities we are torturing the supersoul who is the witness of their pain.

An interesting conversation:

An interesting conversation:

Sometimes common sense falls short when trying to analyze the actions of the liberated soul, just as it falls short when trying to judge the actions of Lord Krishna. Common sense points to Lord Krishna being an ordinary man, as He ran in the battlefield apparently in fear. Only the explanations of acharya's such as Shuka Muni help us to understand Lord Krishna's true purpose in His actions. The Vaishnava acharya is no different then the Lord. His actions are equally mysterious. To some they prove that he is subject to the miseries of the three modes of material nature. To others these actions are his divine lila enacted to bewilder the envious, just as Lord Krishna performed the maushala lila, being killed by an arrow to His foot. To bewilder the atheists and to satisfy the impersonalists who conclude Lord Krishna's body is material, Lord Krishna allowed Himself to apparently be killed and cremated. Foolish people point to this as evidence of his humanity and vulnerability. Lord Krishna and the Vaishnavas can never be judged by common sense and logic. Their activities are enacted from the spiritual realm and are beyond conception: purva purva bhagavata-gana ei kaya vaishnavera kriya-mudra vijne na bujhaya “All of the previous devotees have taught that no one can understand the activities of a vaishnava.” The pure devotee is factually liberated from the influence of the modes of nature. He is not subject to happiness and distress, nor the sufferings caused by material reaction. Within him all of the mystic perfections are manifested in full. He is not under the control of the material nature and is not subjected to her divine laws. According to the Vedanta-sutras, the liberated soul possess full knowledge of everything and possess all the powers of the Lord with the exception of the ability to create the universe. We see that Srila Prabhupada "struggled" to come to America by ship. Is this proof that he did not possess the mystic perfections mentioned in the scripture, or is it his divine lila to utilize all of us as his instruments in Lord Krishna's service? Could Krishna have personally defeated the Kauravas and established dharma on earth? Why did He utilize the Pandavas to attain this goal. Why did Lord Krishna appear unable to stop the rise of adharma? This is His divine lila. It is not proof of his inability to act. Yet oddly enough, the scriptures only speak of this deification of the guru. Nowhere in the scriptures do we find the human imperfections of the spiritual master discussed, rather throughout it is advised to never think of the guru as a human: arcye shila-dhir gurushu nara-matih "One should never consider the deity of Krishna to be stone, and one should never consider the guru to be a human." In fact the only place where the "humanity" of the guru is discussed is in places forbidding us to see him as such. This appears to be a case of projecting one's own experience onto that of the liberated soul. Because my body is full of suffering, because I am afflicted by old age, disease and death, therefore the liberated soul must also be afflicted similarly. It should be noted that this argument is often directed by impersonalists towards Lord Krishna's spiritual body. Throughout Prabhupada's books we find Srila Prabhupada explain the pure devotee to be beyond to control of material nature. Where in the scriptures does it say the liberated soul is limited by his body? All knowledge comes from Krishna and is not dependent on one's body. The Vedanta-sutra explains the liberated soul is omniscient as the Lord is, and both Baladeva Vidyabhushana and Ramanujacharya reaffirm this in their commentaries. Possessing all mystic perfections does not necesitate manifesting them to the eyes of the ignorant. Nor is this the method to identify the liberated soul given in scriptures. Unfortunately what you are doing is using only sense perception and logic in contradiction to the scriptural conclusions. And why does Krishna pass stool? Why does Krishna run from the battlefield? Why does Krishna go to school to learn when He is the source of all knowledge? Your mundane logic will never be able to pinpoint the purpose behind the activities of the Lord and His devotees. Therefore the scriptures repeatedly tell us not to see the guru as human. Everything is enacted by his own will and the will of the Lord. Only by his own choice will cancer apparently manifest. The glories of the pure devotee are not how he struggled against material nature's sufferings, not how much physical work he did, how many heart attacks he overcame, nor how many points he scored in the superbowl despite his injured leg. Humanity is there in countless people and it is nothing to be glorified and worshipped. The scriptures specifically caution us not to see the humanity of the guru because it is an illusion. To neglect the true glory of the pure devotee (that he is eternally situated in Lord Krishna's direct service) and to cover it with his human-like struggle to succeed is a disservice to the liberated soul. It should be noted that this view of the divinity of the Guru is not just held by neophytes such as myself, but great saints such as Gour Govinda Maharaja and Narayana Maharaja hold similar views.

All of these empowered controllers are the Lord's "vibhutis" as per the Bhagavad Gita. I suggest you read the Gita for more information on this. In regards to the devas, yes Krishna is not strictly one of them, for He is the source of all of them: na me viduh sura-ganah prabhavam na maharsayah aham adir hi devanam maharsinam ca sarvasah "Neither the hosts of demigods nor the great sages know My origin or opulences, for, in every respect, I am the source of the demigods (devas) and sages (maharshis)." (Gita 10.2) You have quoted a single phrase "ekam bahudha vadanti", with out any reference to its context and you think this thoroughly establishes all deities as one. I would suggest you study the 10th and 11th chapters of Gita before trying to create controversies by challenging other devotee's views. Neither is the word God. That's the funny thing about other languages - their words usually aren't found in our language. You may be even more surprised that we don't find any of the words in this paragraph in our scriptures, what are the odds of that? When translating concepts into other languages we must use that which most perfectly represents the concept. In this case demigod is an accurate match. If we trace the ancient origins of the word God we will see it refers to one who possesses power, and demi indicates partially. This is the same as vibhuti, a partial empowerment by God.

Croatia Education Ministry Cancels Yoga http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/ ZAGREB, CROATIA, July 17, 2003: Croatia's education ministry has withdrawn its recommendation that teachers take yoga classes because the Roman Catholic Church accused it of trying to sneak Hinduism into schools. Deputy education minister Ivan Vavra said that instead, yoga classes will be organized strictly in teachers' spare time and focused on exercises only, with no students to receive instruction. On Monday, the Croatian Council of Bishops protested that the yoga tuition was an underhand attempt to introduce "Hinduist religious practices dressed up as exercises into Croatian schools." They said it was "unacceptable to introduce into the schools topics that are in contradiction with the generally accepted system of values and the European cultural tradition." The bishops stressed that they did not object to yoga outside the state school system. Vavra acknowledged that the move was triggered by the strong reaction of the church in this country of 4.5 million people, 80 per cent of whom consider themselves Catholics. The Croatia-based group Yoga in Daily Life had qualified along with dozens of other non-governmental groups for state funds for its programme for teachers. It is to receive 50,000 kuna ($8,000) for six weekend trainings starting in September. The idea was to help teachers improve their physical condition and relax, said Vedrana Josipovic, the group's leader.

There are three schools of Vedic astrology. One school calculates the time of conception, one the time the head comes out, and the other the time the feet come out.

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Here is an example of the distortion and deception present in the Galva articles. One of the Galva authors claimed that the Srimad Bhagavatam mentions homosexuals with the word "nartaka". Below was my response: