brajeshwara das

(since this topic is posted twice, I guess I'll answer twice ;-) ) I have always felt it was some great mercy that I can't remember my past lives, with all the offenses I likely committed. It's also a great mercy I don't remember most of them from this life. The burden would be huge! I have gotten glimpses of past lives before, like I spoke Chinese without knowing Chinese once (very complex sentence in perfect Mandarin according to the Chinese present! "you don't need to eat, you are too fat!" is what I said, I thought I was just speaking in English. No spiritual enlightenment was involved, I definitely had the consciousness of a dog or worse). That built up my faith in the transmigration of the soul and I though I believed in 'God' in a nebulous form already that really moved me to investigate eastern religions. So I see some value maybe in building the faith of total beginners but for those already having faith and practicing? I don't know. Personally I think it is better to focus on surrendering to Guru and doing service now than to remember your past lives. It seems self-serving and indulgent to me. "How is it helping in my service?" is what I think I would need to have answered. Is it for the glorification of the Lord or is it my own separate interest at play? It may even be detrimental to spiritial growth. Remember that demons even seek this sort of information.

I have always felt it was some great mercy that I can't remember my past lives, with all the offenses I likely committed. It's also a great mercy I don't remember most of them from this life. The burden would be huge! I have gotten glimpses of past lives before, like I spoke Chinese without knowing Chinese once (very complex sentence in perfect Mandarin according to the Chinese present! "you don't need to eat, you are too fat!" is what I said, I thought I was just speaking in English. No spiritual enlightenment was involved, I definitely had the consciousness of a dog or worse). That built up my faith in the transmigration of the soul and I though I believed in 'God' in a nebulous form already that really moved me to investigate eastern religions. So I see some value maybe in building the faith of total beginners but for those already having faith and practicing? I don't know. Personally I think it is better to focus on surrendering to Guru and doing service now than to remember your past lives. It seems self-serving and indulgent to me. "How is it helping in my service?" is what I think I would need to have answered. Is it for the glorification of the Lord or is it my own separate interest at play? It may even be detrimental to spiritial growth. Remember that demons even seek this sort of information.

I was thinking of the lilas where a demon is awarded a boon like Ravana where no god or demon can kill him, the Lord manifests these seeming limitations on Himself for the purpose of His lila, because he wants to come as Rama for example and show some mood or teach some lesson, whatever is His desire. So no laws bind Him but he has His play, He can make a stone that is so big even He can't lift it, but because He is beyond all laws He can break that law and then lift it. That seems to me what Srila Swami Maharaj is saying there. Inconcievable to my puny mind, I guess but I'm approaching the question from a mundane mentality. I just like the question Anyone else?

This isn't really a joke I guess, but George Carlin's old Catholic priest skit, asking 'Father, if the Lord is all powerful, can he make a rock so big that even He can't lift it?' Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this. I'm guessing it has an achintya bheda abheda answer

My understanding is that when you are experiencing real advancement you become more humble, tolerant, and respectful, and the last thing I would expect to hear from and advancing devotee is 'I have experienced such great advancement'. Please don't take this statement the wrong way prabhu, I'm just seeing something that may help you to understand what is a devotee and what is real advancement. Socialism is there to address material issues where people are being exploited, right? Vaisnavism is there to break the desire in us where we want to be the exploiters, and make us see that really we are to be exploited by the Lord. So really we aren't seeking freedom from exploitation, just the opposite. But we don't want to be exploited by false advertising offering us happiness in this material world through the explotation of other jivas, we don't want to be the demons eating the cows. We want sweetness and we want ecstacy; we want eternal, conscious, pure love. We want to take our natural position and serve. If the jivas can truly engage in Mahaprabhu's Sankirtan movement the natural outcome will be that which you seek. Nothing more is necessary. If you really want to embrace Vaisnavism, find a Guru you can follow that resonates truth inside your heart and surrender to him. Everything is there in a bonafide Guru, nothing is missing that needs to supplimented with materialistic conceptions of equality or justice. The Lord is boyond that. Reality is beyond our mortal conceptions. Cultivate your faith in the service of the sadhu and you will surely benefit. Please forgive my offenses, my intentions were to be helpful.

Thanks for the encouragement. I don't have much physical association so the web is keeping me feeling some connection. I just found this site and it is nice to find so many here sharing their realizations. Jaya Nitai, Gaura Haribol!

I think the reason is it was His sweet will for the sake of His lila. Now the details may be such and such, but the why of it is because He is the Lord. Nothing would have stood in the way if He wanted to have a normal marriage with Srimati Radharani, but she is far above all the other wives and my kanishta status prevents me from looking into this further. Remember this is not a mundane relationship! Better for someone like me to worship madhurya rasa from a distance and instead focus on Mahaprabhu's lotus feet.

Don't forget to check out vedabase.net where you can read so much Krsna-lila online.

I try to listen to kirtans when commuting to work since it does seem that I am less likely to 'let myself go off' at someone. It still happens, I am still full of demoniac qualities, but my Gurudeva says in everything you do, try and connect it with Krishna and you will be benefitted, so I figure driving is included in that. BTW my understanding is we don't chant the Name like we are doing it, it chants us when we become proper receivers (being tolerant, humble, offering honor without desiring it for ourselves). Srila Sridhar Maharaj said "Then, the soul inspired, recapitulates, sending vibration back into the intelligence, mind and so on-the whole process inverted-out to my external tongue and we say, 'Hare Krsna!' That Hare Krsna is He, and we dance in ecstasy." Jaya Guru Maharaj! So all I know is nama aparadha because I want honor, am intolerant (driving sure demonstrates that!) and definitely am not humble. Maybe one day I'll get to nama abhasa with the mercy of the vaisnavas. My consolation is at least I don't only have one life to reach Home.

My understanding is I'm here in this material world because of my own selfishness. All the 'bad' things that happen to me aren't really bad, they are the just the reaction of my past activities. The 'good' things I think that happen may not be good, just as a demon awarded a boon isn't moving forward to his real benifit and eternal home with the Lord. He is going down because of the 'good' fortune. When I have these sorts of personal 'bad' things, I try and see it as a dept repayed and try to find a way to harmonize it with the teachings of shastra and sadhu. Trying to keep the events of this life in the perspective of my eternal life seems the most helpful thing to do. Of course I'm the most beginning of beginners so what do I know?

I relaunched my weblog recently in glorification of Sri Caitanya Saraswat Math. I have no realization of my own and so I don't post my own thoughts, just whatever news I can get from my infrequent visits to our California centers and some excerpts from books and darshans from our line. See the link in my signature below. Please forgive any misconceptions that may pop up on the site as they are solely my own. If you happen to have any news etc from SCSMath that you would like to contribute please use the Contact link. Jaya Gurudeva!

Do a rearch on ebay, I got two from vedicresource. I had ordered a regular clay mrdanga, they mistakenly posted they had it in stock, but upgraded me to a maha-mrdanga (really big!) since I wanted clay. I bought a little toy mrdanga for my son as well.