AncientMariner

This story really hits home for me because my father is reaching the age where his karma is really starting to hit him. My father made a big mistake when he was young and abandoned my mother, myself and my brother for the temporary comfort of an illicit sexual relationship. My father has always had enough redeeming qualities that I have always wanted to maintain my relationship with him but we had a bad period of time when we actually got into physical confrontations with each other. As God is my witness in most cases I was just defending myself or defending my mother's integrity. My father's girlfriend of 20 + years who I have always considered to be my "wicked step-mother" is now terminally ill from smoking cigarettes and I am witnessing before my very own eyes the force of time bring them to their knees. It has made me see a whole different side to both of them, how vulnerable they are and I can't help but feel an overwhelming compassion for them. I feel really sad because in many ways my own father and his girlfriend have been my main adversary in life but now they are both suffering and there is nothing pleasant about it at all.

In other Yugas is karma-sannyasa allowed?

In the Kali-yuga isn't there an absence to almost complete non-existence of brahmanas? If only true brahmanas take sannyasa and in the Kali-yuga there are very few brahmanas is that why Krsna has forbidden sannyasa in the Kali-yuga because he foresaw all the havoc that would be created by people taking sannyasa when not really qualified to do so?

One thing I have realized over the course of my lifetime is that I don't want to come back to this planet ever again. Don't get me wrong if someday I make it to Krsna and He asks or commands me to come back here I will do it but my preference would be to never return to this planet again.

Is gambling bad if you win? I was lucky enough to win 500 dollars on an internet gaming site but the games were not pure luck they are skill based. I chant Hare Krishna while I am playing the games. I know that is not pure devotion but its the best I can do right now. I also play a lot of golf and I know that this is unnecessary waste of time but I have been golfing since I was 6 years old and its hard to give it up so the best I can do is chant Hare Krishna while I play golf. I am just not cut out to be a preacher because when I am serious people think I am joking and when I am joking people think I am serious. That's not a good combination when it comes to preaching.

No offense but what is the purpose of the mantra if it is not to purify you? I thought that was the great mercy of Lord Caitanya is that he has made attaining the mercy of Krishna very easy in the Kali-yuga. One need only chant the holy names without offense.. Its very easy and very simple or at least that was my understanding, am I missing something?

I was at the book store the other day and I bought this book called The Urantia Book. I am sure many people classify it in the dreaded "new age" category but after reading it I have to admit that it is one of the most incredible books I have ever read. It goes into detail about the Luciferian rebellion and how our planet has been spiritually quarantined due to this rebellion. It also goes into tremendous detail about the relationship of the Eternal Son to the Eternal Father which really reminds me of the Vedic conception of Lord Brahma. It really is a book that has restored my faith in Jesus which quite frankly I had completely lost due to my brief association with Christians. I really wish Srila Prabhupada was alive (still incarnated on Earth with us) and he could analyze this book. I would be very curious what his impression of it would be.

I agree with you that you can ultimately trust Krishna but the means that Krishna goes to gain your trust can be full of pranks but don't get me wrong they are ultimately wonderful activities. I don't claim to be overly familiar with Krishna but I know at times in my life he has pulled some pranks on me but I ultimately deserved what I got. Do I trust Krishna not to be a prankster? Sorry I don't trust him to not be a prankster but I trust that he is the ultimate power in all the manifested and unmanifested universes and the spiritual worlds beyond those universes.

I suppose an old soul would be someone who has had many spiritual lifetimes as a human whereas a new soul is someone who just recently got a human birth from one of the lower kingdoms? I don't know just a guess on my part. Technically all souls are ageless aren't they?

The initial stages of devotional service can be very difficult because you do come to the realization that material activities are a waste of time and that can be contrary to everything that society has conditioned you into believing especially here in America where material life is the standard of modern civilization. I don't mean to suggest you should give up material activities jut continue to chant Hare Krishna while performing your duties and with time hopefully you will feel much better inside your heart.

Krishna's mercy is so limitless that just by chanting his name once you can be saved from more sins than you can ever commit. His mercy is so limitless that he can save you from any kind of torture imposed by the material world but there is one exception to the rule. If a person offends a Vaisnava not even Krishna can save them.

If I remember correctly Prabhupada said the living entities are in exactly the positions they want to be in. People creating disturbances in Krishna's creation are themselves disturbed. Krishna is all merciful because he says ok you can stay here and suffer if you want but if you are tired of the suffering call out to me and I will save you. Most people are so unintelligent that they are choosing torture over Krishna.

I was just reading the 7th Canto the other night and it was talking about how the gatekeepers of Vaikuntha Jaya and Vijaya were cursed to take birth as demons in the material world because they forbade the four sage sons of Brahma from entering. I don't know how this applies to us ordinary jivas and if we have ever been in Vaikuntha but it sure is an interesting story and it is speculation on my part but it appears if you do go back to Vaikuntha at least theoretically you could be forced to take birth again if you do something wrong although I imagine that is a very rare circumstance.

I get confused about preaching because I was reading that people that know about Krishna but do not preach are condemned by Prabhupada but at the same time you are not supposed to preach to people that don't want to hear it are you? I try to mention even some of this stuff to my family members and they sometimes get mad so I give up preaching, is that alright? I don't preach about Krishna to them I just try to get them to follow regulative principles if at all possible.

Sometimes I think Krishna intentionally makes you mad at Him to bring you closer to Him. Its like a little kid who gets mad at his parents because they will not give him what he wants but at the end of the day the kid still loves his parents. That is part of the greatness of Krishna everything He does is on the absolute plane so even negative emotions etc. are still pure love for Krishna.

regarding family life in Bhagavad Gita.

"As for detachment from children, wife and home, it is not meant that one should have no feeling for these. They are natural objects of affection. But when they are not favorable to spiritual progress, then one should not be attached to them. The best process for making the home pleasant is Krsna Consciousness. If one is in full Krsna Consciousness, he can make his home very happy, because this process of Krsna consciousness is very easy. One only need chant Hare Krsna, Hare Rama, accept the remnants of foodstuffs offered to Krsna, have some discussions on books like Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam and engage oneself in Deity worship. These four things will make one happy. One should train the members of his family in this way. The family members can sit down morning and evening and chant together Hare Krsna, Hare Rama. If one can mold his family life in this way to develop Krsna Consciousness, following these four principles, then there is no need to change from family life to renounced life."

happen because of the animal slaughter. We slaughter the animals so material nature says if you want to live like that I will send your sons and daughters off to be slaughtered in war.

I am not qualified to offer you any advice on this subject but I can understand what you are going through and I just wanted to wish you the best of luck in whatever decision you come up with. I know in Srimad Bhagavatam some of the issues you have are addressed in Chapter 5 of Canto 6. Narada Muni Cursed by Prajapati Daksa. Prabhupada shows how people have been averse to the Krishna Consciousness movement since time immemorial.

about what Krishna means when he says his devotees will never be vanquished. By this does he surely doesn't mean you will never lose your physical body does he? Did Arjuna grow old and die or did Krishna come and get him in his physical body? Arjuna's fame still lives on and Arjuna undoubtedly lives with Krishna now but I assume he is in a spiritual body?

that Krishna is a real prankster if you know what I mean.

said something about another Guru coming after him, maybe we will get divine intervention or something because that is what is needed at this point. Just pure speculation on my part however so don't quote me on it.

the fallen people of the Kali-yuga to become Krishna conscious.

The people get the political leaders they deserve. The population in the Kali-yuga is not at all interested in liberation and Krishna they are only interested in their sense gratification. So in a society of cheaters, for the cheaters and by the cheaters the public gets cheated by their political leaders. You are correct that the only remedy is preaching Krishna Consciousness but if they ignore you they are not gentlemen anyway and they will be punished by the laws of material nature. For the most part people have chosen to ignore Prabhupada and the Earth is still in a severly chaotic condition.

That politics is for men who are in the modes of passion and ignorance and that devotees have practically no business in politics?

That one of my downfalls as a devotee is that at times I am only interested in my own liberation and that is clearly not the example that Prahlada Maharaja set for us so if there are devotees that are strong enough to convince political leaders to enact Krishna consciousness then I am all for them. I am not at that point yet, I still have a tendency to defend my own solitude which is definetly a downfall of mine which I may never overcome. Either way hopefully when i die I will be chanting the Hare Krishna mantra.