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theist

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Everything posted by theist

  1. How can you separate being a good human being from understanding the goal of human life when achieving or at least striving to achieve the goal of human life is what makes one a good human being. No we should not wait to get a vision of our ultimate goal because without the proper vision we will not know what direction to strive towards. The supreme goal of human life is to come to a point of pure love for God.
  2. Real Vaishnavism - Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati The word 'Vaishnavism' indicates the normal, eternal and natural condition, functions and devotional characteristics of all individual souls in relation to Vishnu, the Supreme, the All-pervading Soul. But such an unnatural, unpleasant and regrettable sense has been attributed to the word as to naturally make one understand by the word, Vaishnava (literally a pure and selfless worshipper of Vishnu), a human form with twelve peculiar signs (Tilaka) and dress on, worshipping many gods under the garb of a particular God and hating another human form who marks himself with different signs, puts on a different dress and worships a different God in a different way as is the case with the words 'Shaiva', 'Shakta', 'Ganapatya', 'Jaina', 'Buddhist', 'Mohammedan', 'Christian' etc. This is the most unnatural, unpleasant and regrettable sense of the word, 'Vaishnava', which literally and naturally means one who worships Vishnu out of pure love expecting nothing from Him in return. Vishnu, the Supreme, All-pervading Soul gives life and meaning to all that is. He is the highest unchallengeable Truth devoid of illusion everywhere and through eternity. He is Sat - ever-existing, Chit - all-knowing, Ananda - ever-blissful and fully free. He is in jivas and jivas are in Him, as are the rays in the glowing sun and the particles of water in the vast rolling ocean. As nothing but heat and light of the sun, and coldness, liquidity etc. of the sea is found in the constituents of the rays and the particles of water respectively, so nothing but Sat, Chit or free-will and Ananda is found in the jiva. The ingredients and attributes of the whole must remain in the part in a smaller degree. So the part is identical with the whole when taken qualitatively and different, when taken quantitatively. This is the true and eternal relation between jiva and Vishnu. So He always prevails over jiva who is also ever subject to Him. As the service of the master is the fundamental function of the servant, so the service of Vishnu is natural and inherent in jiva and it is called Vaishnavata or Vaishnavism and every jiva is a Vaishnava. As a person possessing immense riches is called a miser if he does not display and make proper use of them, so jivas when they do not display Vaishnavata, are called falses though in reality they are so.
  3. Primate, the same doubt somehow always lingers with me after reading your posts. You agree that God is a person. Now please let me hear you clearly and simply state that there is more than one person in Godhead.
  4. And so the obvious point is the one Supreme God the Muslims and Christians and Indian Vaisnava's call out to by different names is the same God although the understanding of the nature of that God by the adherents of different religions may be on different levels of maturity. Those that are outside of this understanding are the mayavadi's and polytheists whereever they may be found. But yet as simple as this is to understand we see the Muslims and Christians condemning the Indian Vaisnavas as worshippers of some strange god called Visnu or Krishna thinking Him to be one of the Hindus many demi-gods. We can understand their confusion because afterall the Hindus do seem to have a god for everything. Just this last week on this forum I learned they have a smallpox god they worship with weekly fasting etc. But maybe the strangest thing of all is some of those involved in bone fide Vaisnava sampradaya's who can't seem to shake the small minded sectarian viewpoint that the God of all existence, all the innumerable universes, must come from India and have a sankrit name and that He is so limited that He cannot send His messengers elsewhere to spread God conscious and draw suffering living beings back to His shelter. Personally I seek to distance myself from all such narrow mindness rather it comes in the form of a human form dressed nicely in dhoti, tilak and sikha or not.
  5. Is it a glass of water or a glass of jal? Only an idiot could not understand a point this simple.
  6. Yes, helplessness is a difficult feeling for those of us in matter who are here trying to be the absolute controller. It is confusing and frustrating. You can't predict anything with any certainty. Well why do you think you should be able too? With all the factors that are outside of your influence (not control because you cannot control anything fully anyway). You cannot quaruntee with certainty that you can cross a street without dying from some cause. The only way to deal with this situation and retain (regain) sanity is to become humble before God and place all our trust in Him.
  7. Yes I am conscious that is not in doubt. Sorry I couldn't word my last post any clearer for you.
  8. I don't get the implication though. Maybe it's just me but I find it helpful to always stress that even though consciousness means personal that there is a clear distintion in consciousness even though there is also a unity. In liberated consciousness there is still unlimited variety because we are distinct living beings eternally. For instance when liberated you will have one type of liberated conscious experience and I will have another. Why the distinction? Because liberation in theism really means liberation in relationship to the Supreme Person. Relationship here means rasa. You may have the relationship of being His most intimate friend and I may have a more passive relationship. This is how it is with Krishna and all His unlimited parts and parcels. He relates to us all and has His own personal conscious experience with each of us personally and individually. In these times when the death cult of impersonalism is trying to swallow the world I believe it very necessary to stress the distinction aspect of liberation and not leave it to implication because the implication will be missed 90% of the time.
  9. Never heard the whole quote before. I like it. Here's one from Bhaktivinode Thakur along the same line. "Forget the past it sleeps, And ner the future dream at all. Act in times that are with thee, And progress thee shall call."
  10. Lokesvara, you will definetly want to read this article before buying or using "ghee". http://www.indiadivine.org/audarya/spiritual-discussions/454855-maneka-gandhi-indias-ghee.html
  11. Any mayavadi here is asked to take on these points one by one or please take to a cave and practice silence.
  12. Ok, but God is not limited to being just consciousness. Just left at this statement is impersonalism. He has a variety of energies which are all under His control. Your statements sometimes sound impersonal to me. I may be wrong though. You often use the term Self which is good but along with Self there is always Superself. Do you agree?
  13. Yes to think the universal body runs without an intelligence shows no intelligence. Then the next question must be Whose intelligence? At this level form of God is not yet a question but that a person, an individual willing being must be behind it all. And that intelligence must indeed be Supreme. Foolish mayavadi's want us to believe that impersonal Brahman wanted to enjoy lila so It expanded itself into all these individuals who are under going birth death old age and disease. So many foolish things contained within this idea. The idea of Brahman wanting something to fulfill Itself says that Brahman is dissatisfied with Itself. How can that be? Dissatisfaction implies a person who is dissatisfied. And the act of seeking satisfaction also is only capable by a person. Another point is if Brahman created birth and death to gain further satisfaction from what was previously supposed to be a perfect condition had why didn't it work? Having failed to find further bliss in samsara now Brahman wants to merge back into itself to stop further suffering. People will come up with the most ridiculous ideas to avoid admitting that God is a person and we are persons subordinate to Him.
  14. Ok gotcha. I agree, we are parts of God and a certain partial manifestation of His Person. One and different. Not at all a "highly speculative proposition."
  15. I believe this is due to a couple of things. 1. the shortage of specific philosophy in the Bible on this point 2. All the New Agey hodge podge impersonaist type philosophy that is now permeating North America. Devotees are supposed to be helping the Christians into a more specific understanding of the Supreme Person instead of engaging in an infantile war of theology with them which some are doing. This was Srila Prabhupada's vision.
  16. I don't understand this primate. Please flush it out for me a bit.
  17. Perhaps but the truth of the statement are from Paramatma. You can't deny that. Rather it makes you uncomfortable or not to face the fact that you are engaged in cow killing by drinking commercial milk, you are. That fact you have not been able to refute. It just remains t be seen what you will do with it. The ball is in your court bubba. PETA's position is cow protection. You claim to have some secret something beyond that. I thought for a second you may have been having a moment of clear thinking but I guess not.
  18. Sounds good. PeTA has an Action Alert page. There are always several projects happening where we e bomb various places to raise awareness. Fashion shops that sell fur are always a good target. Many have removed fur products from their stores. Check it out. Retailers are afraid of PeTA. A couple years ago, the local Whole Foods here decided to offer live lobsters for sale for people to buy and take home to boil alive. When I saw this I was outraged and sent Whole Foods a letter stating my opposition and I mentioned I had alerted PeTA also, which I had. I received no reply from Whole Foods but the big lobster sale was stopped immediately before it was advertised to end and they no longer sell lobster. They envisioned PeTA protesting at their door and they freaked out. There are many successes that are due to PeTA. They are a great organization. For devotees we can only keep the issue of milk from tortured and slaughtered cows coming up and once devotees look at the details of the issue with an open mind they are bound to take a vow to use milk from protected cows only. Thanks for your interest gHari and I hope you will excuse my coarse and often abrasive manner but you surely know me by now. I mean to be emotive to get people to take this issue seriously but no hard feelings OK? dandavats
  19. I know you don't smoke gHari. I was kidding. No one is talking about stopping cows from being born. The focus is very one pointed. There is no need to discuss side points. We want all cows as well as other animals to live protected from cruelty and slaughter. Animals are to be treated like children, not slaughtered and consumed for their meat and milk.
  20. Why are jivas born as birds or anything else Are you smoking ganja gHari? What are you talking about. Man all I know is I can't understand your post. I know I'm not too bright so can you rephrase this?
  21. TRANSLATION Bg 10.10 To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me. PURPORT In this verse the word buddhi-yogam is very significant. We may remember that in the Second Chapter the Lord, instructing Arjuna, said that He had spoken to him of many things and that He would instruct him in the way of buddhi-yoga. Now buddhi-yoga is explained. Buddhi-yogam itself is action in Kṛṣṇa consciousness; that is the highest intelligence. Buddhi means intelligence, and yogam means mystic activities or mystic elevation. When one tries to go back home, back to Godhead, and takes fully to Kṛṣṇa consciousness in devotional service, his action is called buddhi-yogam. In other words, buddhi-yogam is the process by which one gets out of the entanglement of this material world. The ultimate goal of progress is Kṛṣṇa. People do not know this; therefore the association of devotees and a bona fide spiritual master are important. One should know that the goal is Kṛṣṇa, and when the goal is assigned, then the path is slowly but progressively traversed, and the ultimate goal is achieved. When a person knows the goal of life but is addicted to the fruits of activities, he is acting in karma-yoga. When he knows that the goal is Kṛṣṇa, but he takes pleasure in mental speculations to understand Kṛṣṇa, he is acting in jñāna-yoga. And when he knows the goal and seeks Kṛṣṇa completely in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and devotional service, he is acting in bhakti-yoga, or buddhi-yoga, which is the complete yoga. This complete yoga is the highest perfectional stage of life. A person may have a bona fide spiritual master and may be attached to a spiritual organization, but still, if he is not intelligent enough to make progress, then Kṛṣṇa from within gives him instructions so that he may ultimately come to Him without difficulty. The qualification is that a person always engage himself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and with love and devotion render all kinds of services. He should perform some sort of work for Kṛṣṇa, and that work should be with love. If a devotee is intelligent enough, he will make progress on the path of self-realization. If one is sincere and devoted to the activities of devotional service, the Lord gives him a chance to make progress and ultimately attain to Him.
  22. TRANSLATION SB 3.5.40 O Father, O Lord, O Personality of Godhead, the living entities in the material world can never have any happiness because they are overwhelmed by the three kinds of miseries. Therefore they take shelter of the shade of Your lotus feet, which are full of knowledge, and we also thus take shelter of them. PURPORT The way of devotional service is neither sentimental nor mundane. It is the path of reality by which the living entity can attain the transcendental happiness of being freed from the three kinds of material miseries—miseries arising from the body and mind, from other living entities and from natural disturbances. Everyone who is conditioned by material existence—whether he be a man or beast or demigod or bird—must suffer from ādhyātmika (bodily or mental) pains, ādhibhautika pains (those offered by living creatures), and ādhidaivika pains (those due to supernatural disturbances). His happiness is nothing but a hard struggle to get free from the miseries of conditional life. But there is only one way he can be rescued, and that is by accepting the shelter of the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The argument that unless one has proper knowledge one cannot be freed from material miseries is undoubtedly true. But because the lotus feet of the Lord are full of transcendental knowledge, acceptance of His lotus feet completes that necessity. We have already discussed this point in the First Canto (1.2.7): vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam There is no want of knowledge in the devotional service of Vāsudeva, the Personality of Godhead. He, the Lord, personally takes charge of dissipating the darkness of ignorance from the heart of a devotee. He confirms this in Bhagavad-gītā (10.10): teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ yena mām upayānti te Empiric philosophical speculation cannot give one relief from the threefold miseries of material existence. Simply to endeavor for knowledge without devoting oneself to the Lord is a waste of valuable time.
  23. Universal or equal vision is not just recognizing everyone is spirtual soul. It is also being able to recognize the same truth when it is taught by someone outside your own religious/ cultural circle. Just as someone who cannot recognize the soul in another form different from his own can not truly recognize the soul within his own so someone who cannot recognize the truth when spoken by others from a different background than his own cannot truly understand the same truth within himself.
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