Praghosa dasa

Thank you J.N.Das. It was a good idea to post this letter again. Very enlivening. It's the full explanation of Lord Caitanya's verse. Exactly what I needed to hear. Your servant, Praghosa dasa

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Here is the first verse of Srimad-Bhagavatam: "O my Lord, Sri Krsna, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. I meditate upon Lord Sri Krsna because He is the Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him. It is He only who first imparted the Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahmaji, the original living being. By Him even the great sages and demigods are placed into illusion, as one is bewildered by the illusory representations of water seen in fire, or land seen on water. Only because of Him do the material universes, temporarily manifested by the reactions of the three modes of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal. I therefore meditate upon Him, Lord Sri Krsna, who is eternally existent in the transcendental abode, which is forever free from the illusory representations of the material world. I meditate upon Him, for He is the Absolute Truth." (SB 1.1.1) For the sake of the advaitist Hindus a bit rusty with their sanskrit, this translation is offered for the verses mentioned in the previous post by Srimati Jaya Sri Radhey. This translation is in line with the understanding of that very same Brahma who is the receiver of vedic knowledge spoken of in the verse cited above. "Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramatma or Bhagavan." (SB 1.2.11) "I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him." ( Bg 9.29) "Furthermore, O Arjuna, I am the generating seed of all existences. There is no being -- moving or nonmoving -- that can exist without Me." (Bg 10.39) "I am the father of this universe, the mother, the support and the grandsire. I am the object of knowledge, the purifier and the syllable om. I am also the Rg, the Sama and the Yajur Vedas." (Bg 9.17) "You are the father of this complete cosmic manifestation, of the moving and the nonmoving. You are its worshipable chief, the supreme spiritual master. No one is equal to You, nor can anyone be one with You. How then could there be anyone greater than You within the three worlds, O Lord of immeasurable power?" (Bg 11.43) "One who sees the Supersoul accompanying the individual soul in all bodies, and who understands that neither the soul nor the Supersoul within the destructible body is ever destroyed, actually sees." (Bg 13.28) "The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind." (Bg 15.7) So it appears quite clearly that advaita philosophy is meant for another purpose than defining the Absolute Truth. "Even though Lord Siva appeared to preach Mayavada philosophy, at the end of his pastime in the form of Sankaracarya, he preached the Vaisnava philosophy: bhaja govindam bhaja govindam bhaja govindam mudha-mate. He stressed worshiping Lord Krsna, or Govinda, three times in this verse and especially warned his followers that they could not possibly achieve deliverance, or mukti, simply by word jugglery and grammatical puzzles. If one is actually serious to attain mukti, he must worship Lord Krsna. That is Sripada Sankaracarya's last instruction." (SB 4.24.18: purport by ACBSP)

esu purusanam ayuta-purusayur-varsanam deva-kalpanam nagayuta-prananam vajra-samhanana-bala-vayo-moda-pramudita-maha-saurata-mithuna-vyavayapavarga-varsa-dhrtaika-garbha-kalatranam tatra tu treta-yuga-samah kalo vartate. SYNONYMS esu -- in these (eight) varsas, or tracts of land; purusanam -- of all the men; ayuta -- ten thousand; purusa -- by the measure of men; ayuh-varsanam -- of those whose years of life; deva-kalpanam -- who are like the demigods; naga-ayuta-prananam -- having the strength of ten thousand elephants; vajra-samhanana -- by bodies as solid as thunderbolts; bala -- by bodily strength; vayah -- by youth; moda -- by abundant sense enjoyment; pramudita -- being excited; maha-saurata -- a great deal of sexual; mithuna -- combinations of man and woman; vyavaya-apavarga -- at the end of their period of sexual enjoyment; varsa -- in the last year; dhrta-eka-garbha -- who conceive one child; kalatranam -- of those who have wives; tatra -- there; tu -- but; treta-yuga-samah -- exactly like the Treta-yuga (when there is no tribulation); kalah -- time; vartate -- exists. TRANSLATION In these eight varsas, or tracts of land, human beings live ten thousand years according to earthly calculations. All the inhabitants are almost like demigods. They have the bodily strength of ten thousand elephants. Indeed, their bodies are as sturdy as thunderbolts. The youthful duration of their lives is very pleasing, and both men and women enjoy sexual union with great pleasure for a long time. After years of sensual pleasure -- when a balance of one year of life remains -- the wife conceives a child. Thus the standard of pleasure for the residents of these heavenly regions is exactly like that of the human beings who lived during Treta-yuga. PURPORT There are four yugas: Satya-yuga, Treta-yuga, Dvapara-yuga and Kali-yuga. During the first yuga, Satya-yuga, people were very pious. Everyone practiced the mystic yoga system for spiritual understanding and realization of God. Because everyone was always absorbed in samadhi, no one was interested in material sense enjoyment. During Treta-yuga, people enjoyed sense pleasure without tribulations. Material miseries began in Dvapara-yuga, but they were not very stringent. Stringent material miseries really began from the advent of Kali-yuga. Another point in this verse is that in all eight of these heavenly varsas, although men and women enjoy sex pleasure, there is no pregnancy. Pregnancy takes place only in lower-grade life. For example, animals like dogs and hogs become pregnant twice a year, and each time they beget at least half a dozen offspring. Even lower species of life such as snakes give birth to hundreds of young at one time. This verse informs us that in grades of life higher than ours, pregnancy occurs once in a lifetime. People still have sex life, but there is no pregnancy. In the spiritual world, people are not very attracted to sex life, due to their exalted devotional attitude. Practically speaking, there is no sex life in the spiritual world, but even if sometimes it does occur, there is no pregnancy at all. On the planet earth, however, human beings do become pregnant, although the tendency is to avoid having children. In this sinful age of Kali, people have even taken to the process of killing the child in the womb. This is the most degraded practice; it can only perpetuate the miserable material conditions of those who perform it. VedaBase => SB 5.17.12

Truly interesting jndas.