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.

Yes, one must convert. One must convert from one religion to no religion. That is the instruction in Bhagavad Gita. "Abandon all varieties of religion".

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.

Thanks guest, thats what I wanted to hear - there's no such thing as Anu-gita except some mayavadha speculations. Prabhupada never mentioned it - so it is just some concoction by some rascals. Wonder why this guruvani points to a mayavadha link, but anyway, mayavadha seems to be everywhere nowadays.

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.

Again this word practically means some what material in nature. Can you define what is practically....

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.

My point is that there is still something you can not help. But Prabhupada can help you to get milk in Heaven if you sincerely follow instructions given by Prabhupada about celestial cow and adhere preaching what Prabhupada preached whom ever you see, whom ever you meet.

Is it clear to you?

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.

How do you know that ants or small insects are not killed when you walk? Do you look everywhere and watch your every steps that any body is not getting killed whatever small it could be? It is impossible such a life when you are not sitting and only meditating in a seclude location like yogis allowed ant hills on their body. That is not possible in this Kali yuga.

I'm careful where I step, yes. As far as microorganisms, that can't be helped.

In this Kali yuga everybody is sudra, one is better sudra and other is not so good. But all are sudras and only working hard like sudra to maintain body.

So only chant and be happy. Follow those 4 Pillars led down by Prabhupada which is 4 legs of the holly cow and body is only chanting of Hare Krsna.

 

That is the 5 aspect of Hare Krsna movement only chanting. That will be the celestial cow and fetch milk to you in heaven with association of Krsna.

 

So follow those 5 primary principles, No Intoxication, No Meat eating, No Illicit Sex , No gambling and constantly chanting Hare Krsna.

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.

Actually, Prabbhupada said, I have smashed Vivekananda Vedanta and Gandhi non-violence!

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

True, but that wasn't his point. Spammers in multiple forums aren't usually inclined to discuss, they just spam. Hit and run.

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.

Although this group isn’t Christian ...

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This same spam has shown up on other spiritual boards.

Since Hinduism is the Eternal Religion, and when someone reaches Self-realization and God-realization they realize the Vedas are Ultimate Truth, it means that every soul is actually Hindu. In their soul-reality everyone, no matter where they are born, is Hindu, even though being under mayic delusions they may be identifying with some other belief system.

 

Hindu is what beings on the Astral Plane are, because they realize the metaphysical teachings of Hinduism are the Ultimate Truth. Even the demon races are Hindu! Only in Kali Yuga is there even such a thing as other religions besides Sanatana Dharma. In previous ages everyplace on the planet was Bharat and every incarnated soul knew Sanatana Dharma is the Eternal Truth.

 

There is no need to conver to Hinduism, it's only a matter of coming home. and realizing you have been Hindu all along.

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.

The last stage will be when we no longer feel any need for escaping birth and death and are satisifed with serving where He places us. As for me I am stuck in the liberationist stage. This is the result of a little knowledge but no firm taste in bhakti. I have seen devotees who day after day seem to be more and more enthused and inspired. I believe if we are truly plugged in to the bhakti current we will feel fresh inspiration also and on the strength of that transcend our present bound position.

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.

Quote:

 

Both the followers that follow their guru to hell and the gurus that lead them to hell get their due reactions they are both insincere. The follwers fall away from krsna, and the imposter gets his due.

 

 

 

Sincere devotees may go through "fake" initiations but in the end if they are truely sincere Krsna gives them guidance in any number of ways it may be prabhupada, other self realised (or not) vaishnavas or paramatma himself. None of us are sincere completely. So krsna gives us many obstacles to smash our misconceptions, some of us are ready to go through them some of us arent ready yet. We may see devotees we respect fall but there is a lesson from krsna in everything we see if we choose to see it from his angle rather than our egoistic angle.

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.

...

Usually pure devotees don't get afflicted with such deadly diseases. Which pure devotee in our sampradaya has passed away with fatal diseases or in car crashes?

....

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.

The truth is that there is a very glaring reference to reincarnation in the Bible that the Emperor's editors missed. Jesus notes that John the Baptist is Elijah, come again calling in the wilderness.

....

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.

For some so called Christians to concead reincarnation would be like a painful defeat, at the hands of those heathens from a barbaric land, there is a certain ego attached to the soul through lifetimes of false conditioning, and it takes higher degrees of surrender to shift these fixed conceptions in the jiva.

It's usually by the association of considerate devotees that the bastions of resistence and ignorance come tumbling down.

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.