Redsox

Ok, I think you just answered my question . Thank you. I guess surrendering to Him is authentic.

I don't mean to confront you or your sincerety in any way, trying to ask how we know what we do is really being relayed back to him through whatever channel we maybe doing it.

I don't even have any access to any of his dear servants. Besides, his dear servants are going to be in heaven with Him. You start to realize the wretched situation we are in, even if you want to show love to him, he is invisible. Most of these activities seem as if we are pretending He cares. Pretending He eats when we offer him food, or pretending He is there as a vigraha. When did you ever see Him taste any morsel of food? when did you ever see Him come down to hug you when you are down in the dumps? When did He ever atleast blink in the vigraha for that matter!

Thank you for your kind words. Hare krsna.

Judge me, will you? Go right ahead.

It makes me question the authenticity of any of these ideas in vaishnavism.

I wonder what God thinks of these disputes.

Reeled and forgiven Exactly.

Do you? If you were raised with a bunch of terrorists who kidnapped you when you were young and brainwashed you into thinking that everyone on this planet is a bastard only fit to die, is there a choice? What if you were born with an abnormal mind like that korean kid who went into the university to shoot a bunch of students? Do you think it is your or my choice that we learned about krishna? Or did krishna reel you in?

Material education and spiritual education. I am saying both are necessary, the schooling system provides material education. The spiritual education is left up to God and his path set for the student.

You think I have a choice?! How can you even think I have a choice? I didn't choose to be born. It is not due to my choice that I breath in and out, I can't help but do it. My heart doesn't beat on my command. My thoughts don't arise on my command, my body doesn't go through its changes because I want it to do it. When I die, it is not my choice, I will die even if I don't want to die. Why are we living? because we cannot choose between life and death or any other existence.

There is material knowledge that allows you to chat here, and there is the spiritual knowledge. If you are going to lose one , you will have a tough time in life.

The temple priest who showers, decorates, feeds (prasad) , we will assume he is doing devotional service. What about the rest of us? educating ourselves, going to work, paying the bills, doing miscellaneous activities, is this if you say "I do this in surrender to krishna" the same qualitatively as what the priest does above?

School where they don't teach you about 'God': You may choose to believe God exists. School where they don't teach you about 'God': You may choose to believe God does not exist. Captain Planet: "The choice is yours".

You didn't understand what I was trying to get at. I am saying if you don't include your version of God in public schools, the individual student has the freedom to pick and choose to believe what he wants. The so-called slaughterhouses of "higher intelligence" is nothing but your own maya. If kids are told that there is God , they wouldn't have the opportunity to find that God for themselves.

Do you meet each other on the spiritual plane?

I am assuming that you are trying to say that medicine is not perfect, and thereby I am also assuming that you are NOT saying that a doctor : who has to first excel in his premedical courses. then do well in medical college admissions test. go through a rigorous application process where thousands apply and only a few hundred get in. Study constantly for about 2 years and work constantly in rotations for the next two years, Kill the boards, match into a residency. Learn to live off $35,000 for 3-4 years and pay medical school loans ($200,000 loans) on this salary. Is on-call and ready to work even in the weekends (work 80 hrs per week). Again , I am assuming that you are NOT saying that he (the doctor) is wasting his time with the patients because modern medical science fails to cure some rare cases. With that said, ofcourse modern medicine is not perfect, it is evolving and more effective than these so called alternative medical options such as "Homeopathy" or "Ayurveda" in many-if not all- cases. Your statement that modern medical science cures only symptoms and "Thats it", is a gross understatement. End of discussion.

Isn't "Being a gopi" symbolic representation of complete surrender?

So everyone who is in this world is not a devotee?

Internet- pressure to go look at pornography. Internet- choosing to learn more about religion and other matters. Choice.

The physician who cures your physical ailments from time to time would probably disagree with your statement that "Bhagavad Gita is all the education you really need". What makes you think that children are brainwashed at an atheistic school? Choosing to not lecture about God seems to be the opposite of brainwashing to me.

If you went to an islamic school,do you think you would have been able to accept the benefits of a hare krishna teaching later in life?

To transcend three modes, we need to be merged with the mode of goodness?

How do the three modes of material nature play into this?

Read the Big book BG recently. Still confused about what exactly it means when it says "without attachment, a liberated soul works in Krishna consciousness" .