sanatan

If each physical birth is an end-product of the cumulative past ones, then by objectively analyzing the present life, an idea of the immediately preceding life should be readily apparent. Thoughts regarding animal births: I've had lots of pets in this life and most of them were/are better individuals than many people I've known. I think I'd rather be reborn as a pet cat or dog with a lifetime of comfort ahead than as a human being in very unfortunate circumstances, with nothing but ignorance and suffering in the cards. Certainly an animal birth is very often unfortunate, but always is an overgeneralization.

Without proper understanding, that verse is meaningless. Telling a previously-uninstructed and/or unreceptive person this is not different in quality from typical Christian prosetylization. I know, I've tried it.

Krishna Consciousness..."Non-Sectarian", eh Prabhu?

Mira...I've found awesome association of the type you want within ISKCON...a lot of maturing has taken place over forty years. At one point not too long ago I considered defecting but quickly realized it's a cold world out there...

Good post. It really needs to go on the Rapture Ready message board; all those morons do is sit around and analyze each new event to see how it fits in with Biblical "prophecy".

I also like Indradumnya Maharaja's diary very much. He was here in my home city a year or so ago and it was nice to see and hear him in person.

Awesome...I hadn't seen this before. Thanks for posting!

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura also wrote Harinama Cintamani, a guide to chanting the Maha-mantra, which lays down a very exacting and warning-filled standard for its practice. One read through this is enough to scare the average chanter away for good.

Hindu religion is the most ancient religion. You can be convertrd to any religion. But to be a hindu; you have to be born as hindu. Hindu originated as a geographical designation...and is now a sectarian term, as demonstrated by the above statement. The correct term is Sanatana-dharma...eternal religion, eternal truth, or eternal duty. No religion is also a definition, as religion can imply sectarianism.

The most appropriate definition I can find in Webster's is "concerned with voluntary action and ethical decisions". You might take a look there...practical has several definitions. I'd say it means dealing appropriately with the material necessities in our lives.

You're saying that in material life there are certain circumstances we cannot change, but if Srila Prabhupada's instructions are sincerely followed, our spiritual life will develop....correct? If so, that's very clear. We have to live our lives practically and spiritually.

I'm careful where I step, yes. As far as microorganisms, that can't be helped. I'm familiar with all of this philosophy...What's your point?

I won't kill even a tiny bug unnecessarily...pick them up, carry them outside. But, for aggressive and unsanitary insects, it's us or them... roaches and are carriers of disease and in certain climates are impossible to control with any measures short of exterminating them. Same with mosquitoes and houseflies...disease carriers. Wasps and fire ants...painful stings can and do cause allergic reactions and death. I put my own and my family's health above the lives of bugs...it's common sense.

With all due respects to Srila Prabhupada, the idea of smashing has been a problem for ISKCON all along.

Thanks for the support, prabhu. Spammers are not interested in discussion; if you try to discuss with them you get a wall of fundmentalist propaganda, and it's a big waste of bandwidth. I don't go on Christian forums and post Krishna Conscious "spam"; to do so would be poor manners indeed, and an offense to the Holy Names as well.

This same spam has shown up on other spiritual boards.

Actually, the word Hindu is an old Persian term used to designate those populations east of the Indus river...it's use to identify the followers of Sanatana-dharma evolved from this. Sanatana-dharma means eternal religion or eternal duty, and you could just say all souls are eternal, but it is easier communication-wise to phrase it in terms of a religion such as Hinduism. Otherwise, you're right on target!

In general regard to Vedanta: the Theosophical Society and the American Transcendentalist writers preceded Vivekananda in America, but their message was clouded and occultish in the case of the Theosophists, and freely poetic-literary-interpretive for the Transcendentalists. IMO, the core geneaology of both Advaita and Dvaita Vedanta in America: Pre-1890's: Transcendentalist writers, Theosophists, minor writers. 1890's-today: Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Mission. Advaita. 1920's-today: Paramahansa Yogananda and Self-Realization Fellowship. Advaita. 1960's-today: Srila Prabhupada and ISKCON. Dvaita.

Yes.

That's the way I've always understood it...the desires for liberation from the material world or salvation in the Christian sense are actually subtle needs of the false ego. From that perspective pure bhakti is a pretty advanced concept...needless to say, I haven't grasped it well either.

In the first paragraph, you've made a blanket generalization, and have also re-repeated a very tired rationalization for bad leadership. In the second, you contradict what you said in the first.

This whole discussion has involved post-Srila Prabhupada ISKCON. The post-Caitanya Mahaprabhu Gaudiya-sampradaya is a huge tree with many branches...the only nonspeculative way to have a such a discussion would be to research the history of the sampradaya in pre-ISKCON India and discover how past acaryas actually did pass away...how many of them suffered from very poor general health or debilitating disease, died in accidents, etc.

The guy who was writing the Mayan calendar dropped dead at 2012, and no one else knew what he was doing, so that's the way it ended up. As far as our scriptures are concerned I don't know of any specific apocalyptic prophecies for the near future.

There are some compassionate and caring responses here...how many of us are truly "in order"? Best attitude is to consider every other devotee to be more advanced than one's own self. Have a great trip, Pankaja prabhu...go with God.

Once again, though, that's an isolated reference that merely suggests reincarnation, without a strong supporting context. I've had Christians explain that passage to me as being an example of a special God-ordained incident, rather than a mysteriously or mistakenly included reference to reincarnation as a universal fact. Yes, a large part of evangelical Christianity is about gaining a particular type of psychological control over others that I just haven't seen much of in Vedic or Oriental faiths. From the individual one-on-one level on up, it's very much an ego-driven, I'm absolutely right-you're absolutely wrong approach.