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Avinash

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Everything posted by Avinash

  1. Here is an anecdote related to beauty. Once, I was given the resumes of some candidates who wanted to apply for job in the firm where I am working. Our CEO asked me to decide whom to call for interview and to interview them. Some of the candidates were females. None of the resumes contained the photograph of the candidate. I said to my CEO, "We should make a rule. Next time, when a girl sends her resume, then she must attach her colored photo in it. Then, it will be easier for me to make decisions." Well, he just laughed, but did not implement my suggestion.
  2. I did not find the question as dumb. A real peacock feather has to come from a peacock and not from a plant. So, I do not find anything wrong in decorating Krsna with that. The Gita verse you have provided talks about making offerings to Krsna and not about decorating Him. How is the weather there? Is it cold? If yes, how about making a sweater for Krsna?
  3. I think, you are confusing between Mamaa and Maamaa. When you pronounce Mamaa, then it is mother. When you pronounce Maamaa, then it is mother's brother. Similarly, when you pronounce Maamee, it is Maamaa's wife. When you pronounce Mammi or Mommi, it is mother.
  4. Mama (pronounced as Maamaa) means mother's brother. Mami (pronounced as Maamee) is his wife. My Mami is very religious.
  5. J.N. Das ji, I have one question for you. As I wrote in my previous post, I was out of station. My Mama and Mami had come to Bangalore. My Mami wanted to visit temples. I took them to various temples in Bangalore. Then, I took them to Mysore. When I inquired about ISKCON temple there, I was told that there was none. Anyway, I showed them other temples. Is there any ISKCON temple in Mysore or is there only some office of ISKCON?
  6. In that multi-verse posting it was mentioned that if there are incalculable universes, each with slight variations of the next, then in one sense we all have free will, because in each and every universe "we" make every single possible combination of choices. Perhaps, you are trying to say that God knows all possibilities about future. I agree that this is not contradictory to free will. But, if God knows exactly what is going to happen at a given place and at a given time in a given universe, then again, we have no free will. So we can be desiring (willing) all sorts of things to happen, but in a materially bound state we are limited in our options. We can have free will even if we are limited in out options provided we have at least two options. But, if every time, we have only one option, then there is no free will.
  7. Sorry for not replying earlier as I was out of station. If God knows everything about future, then future is pre-determined. If future is pre-determined, then there is no free will. Most of the arguments in this thread are there to explain how God can know everything about future. I have no objection if somebody says that God knows everything about future. I have no objection if somebody says that God does not know everything about future. But, I do not agree that God knows everything about future and still, we have free will.
  8. The sparrow is seeing you when you are doing it. It did not see you before you started typing. You are saying that future exists even before it happens. I am not sure if this is true. But, if it is, then free will is impossible.
  9. Please note: In the proof I gave above, I have applied all rule only to that imaginary person and not to Krsna. Please tell me which step of the proof is wrong.
  10. Let me prove why free will and Krsna seeing evrything that is going to happen in future are contradictory. Let us make the following two presuppositions: P1: Krsna knows everything that is going to happen in future. P2: Krsna's knowledge can not be wrong. Now, consider any arbitrary person. Imagine any arbitrary activity and any arbitrary time in future. Let us see if the person is free to do or not to do that activity at that time. According to P1, Krsna knows if this person is going to do that activity at that time or not. If Krsna knows that he is going to do it, then according to P2, he has to do it; he is not free not to do it. If Krsna knows that the person won't do it, then he won't; he is not free to do it. This means that this person is not free to do or not to do this activity at that time. Since this is true for any arbitrary person, any arbitrary activity and any arbitrary time, nobody is free to do anything at anytime.
  11. Krsna creates time; then why can He not do so in a way that allows Him to view it all at once? I never said that He can not view past, present and future at once. All I am saying is that if He sees everything that is going to happen in future, then man has no free will. Free will and Krsna seeing everything that is going to happen in future can not go hand in hand as they are contradictory.
  12. Are we saying that God cannot see the future if man is allowed free will? Man can have free will if God can see some part of future but not everything. If God can see everything in future, then man has no free will. As I have mentioned a few times in this thread, it is not necessary for God to know everything about future, if He is omniscient. In other words, He is omniscient even if some events of future are unknown to Him. Are we saying that God cannot create the material cosmos from nothing? He cannot create time and space from nothing? He can. He is afterall, limited by the natural laws we observe in our world? He is not limited by these laws. God must see the causal plane sequentially as we do? He need not. Do the stories in the Vedas that present the entire future of the cosmos, demand that free will is non-existent? Do the stories in the Vedas really present the ENTIRE future of the cosmos? If they do and the presentation is correct, then free will is non existent. Yet, why would Krsna preach the Gita if no one has the choice to remember Him or not remember Him? If Krsna has pre-determined everything, then He must have pre-determined that He would preach Gita. I conclude that Sri Krsna is not a simple fellow like I am. Agreed. I must accept His inconceivable potencies as He describes Them, verbatim. Agreed. If we read this thread properly, we have learned that free will means surrendering to Krsna, otherwise we are forced to act in fortune or folly in accordance with the reactions of our previously accumulated karma. Surrendering to Krsna may be considered as desirable, but I don't see it as the meaning of free will. Also, if everything is pre-determined, then our previous karmas were also pre-determined. That is, in truth, the conditioned soul acting for his own amusement has no free will, although that illusion is a major feature of the false ego trap, affording us the fantasy of being masters of all that we survey. If a conditioned soul is acting for its own amusement, then it does not mean that it has no free will. Though, you may say that it is not utilising its free will properly.
  13. Though pind daan can be performed anywhere, Gaya is considered to be the most important place for it. (Padma Purana mentions Gaya). This town is situated on the banks of river Phalgu. Every September, Pitrupaksh Mela (a month-long event in which special prayers and rituals are made to honour the departed) is held. Many Hindus come there to do pind daan for their dear ones who have departed. Note: Even though Phalgu is a river, it is almost dried up. I have gone to Gaya many many times. I have personally seen some people playing football inside the river.
  14. Pinddaan is the offering of food to a departed person. We know that food is a must so long a person is alive. It is believed that even after death, he has desire for food (at least for some time). Pinddaan is performed to satisfy this desire.
  15. I know the athletic skiier will win, but he can turn left, right, he can jump, go straight, or zig zag back and forth etc.... Suppose that God knows the skiier will turn left. Then, he WILL turn left. If God knows that he will not turn left, then he WILL NOT. The example you have given is valid only if God knows some things about future, but not everything. If He knows everything, then everything is pre-determined, including the skiier's turning or not turning left.
  16. Avinash, you seem to not accept free will. Is that only true for conditioned souls? If God knows everything about future, then free will is impossible. Or, in other words, if free will exists, then God does not know everything about future. Swedish man (3): Is there free will? PrabhupAda: Yes, yes. Just like you are sitting here. If you don't like, you can go away. That's your free will. But if God already knew that the swedish man would be sitting there, then that man had to be sitting there. So, where is free will? But in no way does my knowledge prevent these individuals free will from being exercised (no pun intended). Can you point out a single thing that the athletes are free to do or not to do? If there was no past and if there is no future, then the question ceases to exist. Krsna's statement that He knows all that is going to happen in future makes sense only if believe that past and future really exist. If I reply "yes/no", what will you conclude? I'm not kidding now. Then, I will ask you to elaborate what you mean by "yes/no". Who did tell you "He can not do because the length of any side of a triangle can not be more than the sum of the lengths of its other two sides. ", God? Your geometric teacher told it as an axiom. God is ever higher than an axiom. Please read whole of my post. I am trying to say that not being able to do something is not the proof of not being omnipotent. The example I gave is just an example. Of course, in non-Euclidian space, it is possible to construct such a triangle. (Though I did not specify, I had assumed Euclidian space). Okay, forget this example. But, it is possible that there is some problem that is unsolvable. Then no one, not even God can do it (otherwise why would we call it unsolvable?). But, does it mean that God should not be called as omnisicent? No, it does not mean that. Only if the solution exists, then we can expect God to know the answer. If the solution does not exist and God can not give the solution, it does not mean that He is not omniscient. As I have already written before and I repeat, "Even if God is not able to create a rock so heavy that He can not lift, then also He can be considered as omnipotent." Or, do you think that it is impossible for a question to be insolvable? God is/isn't omniscient. Please elaborate what you mean by "is/isn't".
  17. As has been my personal experience, many times people think about caste because they are under impression that others also think like that. Let me give an example of my just next door neighbour. He is a brahmin. He was living in that locality before I shifted there. Many poor people live near by. Whenever any child of any of those poor people used to come inside his house for playing, then he used to scold them. To me he used to say, "I don't want these low castes people to come inside my house." But, one thing I used to find very surprising. Often why I came to house from outside, then I used to find children playing inside his house. As soon as he saw me, he started scolding them. After a few days, those children started coming inside my house also. I never scolded them. In fact, often I give them something to play with and something to eat also (chocolates or if some dish is there). Then my neigbour also stopped scolding them. Then, I came to know why he used to behave that way. In his heart, he did not consider it bad to mix with people of different castes. But, he was under impression that I hated people of "so called" low castes. Therefore, he used to pretend in front of me that he also hated them. When he came to know that I did not hate them, he stopped pretending.
  18. In the Udupi district in India, Mahabhiseka happens every 12 years. It is going to start this saturday and will continue for 11 days.
  19. I got 4. I counted the 'F' in the last 'OF' but not in the other two.
  20. The earlier Gita quote showed that He knows the future. For Him, the future exists now. The past exists now. If this is true, then everything is pre-determined. So, if a person does something, this means that he had to do it. He may think that he is doing it because he wants to do it. But, in reality, he had to want to do that. If Krsna knows all that is going to happen in future and if His knowledge can not be wrong, there is no free will even though we may think that we have free will.
  21. For us, it would be like having a time machine. Our excellent adventure would take us to 8PM on March 1st, 2002. We go to the library and find Leyh studying. We find him there because, in the future, that is what he will be doing at that time. Or consider the present: had you used the time machine a week ago to arrive at this moment at my place, you would find me typing this mind-boggling message. A time machine that can go to future is possible only if the future is pre-determined. Otherwise, it is impossible to develop a time machine. So, in your argument, you have made implicit assumption that future is pre-determined. But, is it?
  22. Just a thought. If Krsna is the only male, then should Radha not be the only female?
  23. Often a question is asked, "Can God make a rock so heavy that He can not lift?". If you say "yes", then the questioner will say, "Look, God can not lift the stone, so He is not omnipotent. If you answer "no", then he will say, "Look, He can not create such kind of stone, so He is not omnipotent." May be that God can create such such kind of stone and still be called as omnipotent in some manner that I can not think of. But, I am going to prove in this post that He can be called as omnipotent even if He can not create such a stone. Consider a person who is a great mathematician. He is asked to draw a triangle whose sides have lengths 1 cm, 1 cm, and 3 cm. He can not do it. But it does not mean that he does not have good knowledge of Geometry. He can not do because the length of any side of a triangle can not be more than the sum of the lengths of its other two sides. If that person is asked to do something that is possible in theory but is very difficult to do in practice, and he can not do it, then we can say that we have thought of some problem that he can not solve. But, if it is not possible in theory itself, it just not indicate anything about his knowledge. In the same manner, if God can not create a rock that He can not lift, then we can not say that He is not omipotent. Just as we can not call God as not omipotent if He can not prove that 2 > 3.
  24. Let me tackle a very fundamental question. Is it a must for God to know future in order to be called as omniscient? I don't think so. I am not trying to say that God does not know future. May be He does or may be He does not; I have no idea. What I am saying is that He can be considered as omniscient even if He does not know future. To understand how this is so, consider a person who has got very good knowledge of different kinds of animals. Now, I want to prove that his knowledge is not as good as is claimed. I ask him to tell me the color of donkey's horns. Definitely he can not answer. Have I really proved that his knowldge is bad? No. He can not answer simply because donkeys do not have horns. If we ask him the color of a cow's horns and he can not answer, then I can say that he does not have good knowldge, because cows have horns. Similarly, if God does not know future, then we can call Him not omniscient only if future is really pre-determined. If future is not pre-determined and then God does not know future, it does not mean that He does not know future. Of course, being omnipotent should allow Him to make the future pre-determined. But, just because, He is capable of doing something, does not mean that He must do it.
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