Vedesu

Narayana Maharaja is actually saying that the editors--not Srila Prabhupada--have included women, as well as vaishyas and shudras, among the lowborn. He says that Srila Prabhupada could never have written such a thing. It's interesting to note that Narayana Maharaja's edition of Bhagavad-gita does exactly the same thing: "O Partha, by taking shelter of Me, even the lowborn, such as women, merchants, sudras, or whoever, are certain to attain the supreme destination." The '68 version of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, however, avoids making "women, vaishyas, and shudras" an explanation of what it means to be low born: "O son of Pritha, anyone who will take shelter in Me, whether a woman, or a merchant, or born in a low family, can yet approach the Supreme Destination."

I just now checked my hard-bound edition of Srila Narayana Maharaja's Bhagavada Gita, and it says: O Partha, by taking shelter of Me, even the low-born, as well as women, merchants, sudras, or whoever, are certain to attain the supreme destination.

I typed it out exactly as it was written, commas and all, from the 1st edition, printed in the year 2000. Do you have a copy, Babhru prabhu? I was just curious as to your claim that "Narayana Maharaja's edition of Bhagavad-gita does exactly the same thing."

What part of the above essay is relative and what part is absolute?

Good point. And good luck. It's kind of ironic, but it almost seems to me that you're trying to dialogue with an impersonal essay machine that is incapable of engaging in straightforward point-by-point discussions, let alone participating in a heartfelt or personal manner.

We've read all the essays before. Now it's time to lose the machine-like verbiage and speak from the heart, relevant to the thoughtful points being raised by Beggar Prabhu. Is that even possible? I have my doubts.

http://www.mybloop.com/vish/03_Sri_Tulasi_kirtana.mp3

 

Thousands upon thousands of unwanted things in the heart....gone!

Sweet bhajana. Thankyou Bija prabhu. I've got it bookmarked now.

I remember that blissful photo of you, Random Prabhu, from when you were bathing in the Ganga (last year?) in Navadvipa. It clearly shows you wearing neckbeads, not that it's anyone's business of course. I was searching for it on BVML but it doesn't appear to be there any longer.

Anyway, I salute your good service, without the rub.

(edit: I later found it in a photo gallery on that website)

Thankyou Nrsinghadev Prabhu. That was quite a profound and articulate analysis of the present unfortunate state of affairs. Sadhu! Sadhu!

Ofcourse within my heart I could easily attack and steam out the hurt. But this will be of no benefit to anyone - so the opportunity for growth extends itself instead.

 

All humans have feelings, even as offenders we have feeling. This is the essence of vaisnavism - softness of heart.

 

Bhakti will only reside in a softened throne. Where politics has first priority, the flow of bhakti will stifle.

I don't post all that often, but I just wanted to let you know Bija prabhu, that I have a great respect for your mood and that I enjoy reading the realizations that you share. The NDE from your younger years was an eye-opener for me and I know that it must have been a great catalyst and epiphany for your progressive spiritual evolvement, which is light-years ahead of my own. I appreciate the way you are able to communicate with a soft heart towards almost anyone, regardless of their viewpoints. I hope that I may be able to imbibe your swan-like temperament someday. Hare Krsna!

Kindling/sobriquet/knotty-pine... It's all Greek to me.

I gotta admit that I would very much appreciate it if my choice is to read only or mainly the books of Prabhupada that I would not be defined as a "Prabhupada onlyite".

No, not at all. "Prabhupada onlyite" applies to those who not only believe Srila Prabhupada is the only way, but that all other gurus are bhogus, including Srila Prabhupada's Godbrothers and their disciples who are currently preaching and spreading the glories of the holy name all over the planet. The "Prabhupada onlyites" campaign against other bona fide Gurus and commit Vaishnava ninda and aparadha. You on the other hand, seem to be a kind, sincere, innocent devotee. If Srila Prabhupada's books inspire you, that is a wonderful thing, and I believe that any sincere Vaishnava would encourage you to continue. A "Prabhupada onlyite" generally feels the need to blaspheme other Sadhus in order to prove his loyalty and make a show of being devoted to Srila Prabhupada. As long as you are not involved in this, and I haven't seen any indication that you are, I have immense respect for you and consider you a sincere Vaishnava, as should any other devotee, regardless of their affiliation.

I really don't understand how your brain works Suchandra. Your last post was irrelevant.

I've noticed that as well whenever you quote him in your replies. He is unable to defeat you using sastra and logic, so he resorts to ad-hominem attacks and when that fails, he resorts to strawmen and off-topic incoherent ramblings. Yesterday he twice accused you of not being a follower of Srila Prabhupada, even though he knows full well that you are a duly initiated disciple of Srila Prabhupada. Today he boldly claims that you have rejected Srila Prabhupada. These are ad-hominem attacks, simply making harsh, prejudiced, baseless judgements upon your character. Even when you show him direct quotes from Srila Prabhupada's vani regarding siksa guru being non-different than Krsna, his assault continues. Clearly, Srila Prabhupada's vani is not as important to him as winning an argument and trying to make you appear to be an evil person, per his agenda.

Srila Prabhupada himself spoke highly of Srila Sridhara Maharaja:

 

...who is the most highly competent of all my godbrothers. This is B. R. Sridhara Maharaja, whom I consider to be even my

siksa

guru . If you are serious about the advancement of your spiritual life, I advise you to go to Sridhara Maharaja and I will feel that you are safe.You can also make arrangements for your other godbrothers to go there in the future. (SP Ltr. Hrsikesa, January 1, 1969)

 

 

What Sripada Sridhara Maharaja has directed, I take it on my head. It is appropriate that I should accept his direction. (SP Ltr. Govinda Mj, 12-9-69)

 

 

What Govinda Maharaja has said is true. I consider his guru as my siksa guru . (SP,

ISKCON

Mayapur Candrodaya Mandira opening ceremony 1974)

 

 

Those who are intelligent, they are making something, Sridhara Maharaja and others. (SP Conversation, Allahabad, January 13, 1977)

One of my important godbrothers [sridhara Maharaja] says. He's sincere. He says, "The prediction of

Caitanya-caritamrta, prthivite ache yata nagaradi-grama

So you have done it." (SP LA Morning Walk, December 11, 1973 & SP Ltr. Bon Maharaja, July 7, 1975)

 

 

Our relationship is very intimate. After the breakdown of the Gaudiya Matha I wanted to organize another organization making Sridhara Maharaja as the head. (SP Conversation, March 17, 1973)

 

 

 

 

 

Also this:

Even amongst our God-brothers we have misunderstanding but none of us is astray from the service of Krishna. My Guru Maharaja ordered us to execute his mission combinedly. Unfortunately we are now separated. But none of us have stopped preaching Krishna Consciousness. Even if there was misunderstanding amongst the God-brothers of my Guru Maharaja none of them deviated from the transcendental loving service of Krishna. The idea is that provocation and misunderstanding may remain between one man and another. But our staunch faith in Krishna Consciousness may not allow any material disruption. Please therefore try to be sympathetic with any person even if they differ. The only qualification we have to scrutinize is if one is acting in Krishna Consciousness as far as one is able to do it. This personal grudge is not inhuman and as I have told many times, that individualism is the cause of personal misunderstanding. When such individualism is employed in the center of Krishna there is no harm even if there is personal misunderstanding. Personal misunderstanding exists even in the higher levels. There is competition of loving Krishna even in the party of Srimati Radharani. Letter to: Brahmananda : 67-11-18 Calcutta

Among Vaisnavas there may be some difference of opinion due to everyone's personal identity, but despite all personal differences, the cult of Krsna consciousness must go on. We can see that under the instructions of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja began preaching the Krsna consciousness movement in an organized way within the past hundred years. The disciples of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja are all Godbrothers, and although there are some differences of opinion, and although we are not acting conjointly, every one of us is spreading this Krsna consciousness movement according to his own capacity and producing many disciples to spread it all over the world. Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 4: Chapter Twenty-eight, Text 31

one should respect one's spiritual master's Godbrothers as one respects one's spiritual master. Adi-lila: Chapter Five, Text 147

Addressing Srila Sridhara Maharaja as "Sridhara" is clearly disrespectful. That would be like a Vaishnava from another sanga or Sampradaya addressing Srila Prabhupada as A.C. or Abhay, or De. Being that there are Vaishavas from numerous sangas contributing here, we need to observe proper Vaishnava etiquette if we wish that our own ideas be accepted by others, IMHO.

I don't have the websites handy (although I can look them up if you like) but there are several projects in Vrndavana that are worthy options for those who have a little extra gink and would like to be of service: aid for the abandoned widows in Vrndavana, restoring the forests of Vrndavana, and restoring the Vraja kunds (over 100 of them.) Nice sukriti if you are so inclined towards that type of seva. I like the idea of helping the elderly in your short list. The Vrndavana widows would qualify in that category. There are also aging Vaishnavis (worldwide) who would like to retire in the Dhama but cannot do so without assistance.

Namaste Everyone. i think i perfer vaishnavism and i feel affinities to god in both krishna and narayan forms but i do not particularly feel any connection with iskcon. does anyone know of any alternative places where a westerner can learn? are there particular groups of teachers to stay away from?

 

thank you for your advice

 

JAI SRI VISNU!

I've compiled some links to the websites of some of the more prominent Gauidiya Vaishnava missions, in no particular order of personal preference. Perhaps by carefully examining some of these sites, you will feel some inspiration to make a connection. As far as which groups to avoid, I can't advise you so much there (on a public forum), but to the best of my knowledge, all the missions listed below are bona fide and worthy of taking shelter. Hare Krsna!

http://www.vrindavan.org/

http://www.sreecgmath.org/index1.html

http://www.gopinathmath.com/main.html

http://www.scsmath.com/

http://www.gosai.com/chaitanya/

http://www.purebhakti.com/

http://www.gaudiyamission.com/Home.html

http://www.swami.org/

You completely misunderstand. The idea is to cry out for Krsna, to weep for Krsna. If you think that you have some attainment then you how will you feel empty, and the only way we can attract Krsna by our chanting or service is by emptying ourselves.

Thankyou for sharing these amazing realizations from Srila Sridhar Maharaja. Simply amazing purports to the verses of Sri Siksastakam.

I think I see the point you are making, and I hope it has become clear to the devotee who expressed some doubt. It's not that we can't have a taste. Naturally, we all hanker after taste and this taste will motivate us to continue further on the path. The point is, we can't think that it is by our own endeavor that this taste has come. We have to understand that it is only by divine grace, causeless mercy. We are not the doers, and if we start to think that it is by our own doing that we develop some taste, then that is false ego, which will ultimately be the cause for falldown. That is the "danger" that Srila Sridhara Maharaja is describing above, IMHO.

As SSM mentions, Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Goswami, despite experiencing spiritual ecstasy of the highest degree, always thinks within himself that he is lower than the worm in stool and more fallen than Jagai and Madhai. That is the secret. When the Lord blesses us with taste, we need to feel ourselves completely undeserving, and simply count our blessings for the causeless mercy we have received. When we start to think "Oh, my sadhana is so powerful, I am such a fixed-up devotee, look at me, I'm more sincere than anyone, I am attracting Krsna's mercy by my big big service and powers of devotion", that is the danger zone. Pride cometh before the fall.

Okay, so now we see that the dreamer-vadis have introduced holograms into their vocabulary to describe their science-fictional account of the origin of the soul. It is becoming amusingly obvious where this all ultimately leading to: engrams. From holograms to engrams, then from engrams to full-on Dianetics as founded by HH L. Ron Hubbard.

engram: defined as a faithful recording of a moment of pain and unconsciousness. It is stored in the stimulus-response mechanism of (the reactive mind). It is not a memory. Engrams contain all perceptions present in a moment when pain is experienced but are not easily available to an individual's awareness because they are stored in the unconscious (the Reactive Mind). A goal of Dianetics is to assist a person in confronting such incidents bringing them into full awareness. -Wikepedia

Time out for some halavah!

at least there is no mention of the long lost servant waking up under some bush in Goloka, from a long maya-slumber, or some other nonsense about the lack of time factor in the spiritual world

Exactly. Duly noted. And in this excerpt below, perhaps the word "entered" could be highlighted in blue, although it should be obvious to any partial observer that there is a gulf of difference between "waking up from a nightmare under a bush in Goloka" and "entered Vrndavana."

In Brhad-Bhagavatamrta, it is written that once, as Krsna and the cows were returning from the Vrndavana forest at the end of the day, a boy had just attained spiritual emancipation and entered Vrndavana as a cowherd boy (sakhya rasa).

I use the calendar linked below, which says to fast til Noon, then after that, observe an Ekadasi fast (no grains or beans) until sunrise of the next day:

http://bvml.org/calendar/index.html

There's also an Iskcon GBC calendar which says to fast til sunset, but doesn't specify whether to follow an Ekadasi fast or not:

http://vcal.iskcongbc.org/Default.aspx

Wish I could be of further help, but that's all I've got.

PS: Depending on one's location, Rama Navami may be on Sunday, not Monday. Both calendars linked above give info based on your location.

Thanx Prabhuji

I'm also a disciple of Srila Narayana Maharaja ! nice to meet you

Very nice to meet you too, Prabhu Ji! Thank you for your kind words. I would probably classify myself more as an aspiring disciple, receiving siksa. It's been a few years since I attended one of the annual Festivals. Last summer was very nice as the Festivals were filmed live in Houston and Badger, and I could observe many devotees that I knew who were in attendance, some of whom participated in the entertaining plays after the lectures.

My condolences to your Aunt.

I believe this to be a very important topic. Devotees have a chance to help their departed loved ones who may be in dire situations where there is no other hope than the "living" relative. We may not be able to save the world, but if we can help save a few loved ones, that is wonderful seva. It's also our duty.

This is what I know about offering Tarpana:

 

Offer Krishna-Prasadam [veggy food that has been offered to Krishna or obtained from Temple] remnants to a picture of the ancestor on the date of the ancestor's passing. This is to be repeatedly done yaer after year.

Thanks for this. Very interesting. When you mention the date of the ancestor's passing, should this be calculated astrologically according to the Vedic calendar? That might be difficult for some of us to do.

Also, Sunanda prabhu, if you have any connections with devotees who travel to India for Karttika or Gaura Purnima, usually there are Maths that regularly do shraddha ceremonies for the pilgrims who request them. Last year I sent a photo of a departed relative along with a small donation for the priests who do the cooking preps and fire yajna to a disciple of Srila Narayana Maharaja and a ceremony was performed, then the photo placed into the Jamuna River. I'm guessing that devotees of other Math affiliations also have similar ceremonies. It does give one a little peace of mind to have this done for one's loved ones. The devotee who arranged this for me said she had the ceremony performed for her Dad the previous year and some very mystical things took place, feeling the presence of her Dad. Other participants at the yajna also experienced mystical occurrences with regard to the forefathers they were benefitting.

You had this person fooled for a minute or two. Yeah, you had her going really good:

They flee from the fire and never return for help.

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide

Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz

Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law

Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning since the world's been turning.

We didn't start the fire

But when we are gone

It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on...

[...]That is closer to who you really are, than the traveling freakshow that most people have turned themselves into. Adorned with all manner of earthy dirt, thinking themselves beautiful.[...]

Okay, now that your tangential rant is out of the way, can you please answer the questions which I raised above? And also the points raised by Beggar in post #80? Thankyou.

You have to be both the ocean and the raindrop.

Earlier you used the analogy of the leaf on the tree, and that you were only a leaf (although prior to that, you claimed that "I am you ... and aware of it.") Yet here in the raindrop/ocean analogy, you're claiming that you are both. So which is it? Are you only the leaf, or are you the tree also?

The difference exist only in the mind.

Well, it does sound like you're on the mental platform alright, sort of making things up as you go along, accepting your own mind as the ultimate authority.

I'm not sure how exactly how to apply this in my life. To use for example doing the dishes.. Do I think to myself.. 'I am doing the dishes for Krishna." and then do the dishes. Or do I repeat to myself silently "I'm doing the dishes for Krishna." as I do the dishes?

Well, the first question is... are you actually doing the dishes for Krsna? Are you referring to a situation where you are at the Temple and washing Krsna's personal dishes after He's eaten? Or washing pots that were used to prepare an offering for Him? Or are you talking about just being at home and washing your own dishes after your own personal meals?

Or do Involve my mind more into it? It just seems like repeating that Im doing them for him doesnt quite capture him.. It's just vain repititions. any advice?

If you're not actually washing Krsna's dishes, then yes, it is a vain repetition. And even if you are, it's not necessary to repeat to yourself "I am doing Krsna's dishes" over and over. Maybe remind yourself a couple of times that you are rendering some service to Krsna. Other than that, the repetition that is recommended would be to chant the holy names of Krsna. Or perhaps play a kirtan tape with Srila Prabhupada chanting and meditate on the sound vibration while performing your service (or household chores, whatever the case may be.)

Hello Kim,

It might be helpful if you explain why you have singled out the Srimad Bhagavatam as opposed to the others. You said you have read other Vedic scriptures as well as books by Swami Prabhupada. Or maybe you have doubts about all the books, not just the Srimad Bhagavatam?? You haven't made this clear. And what is the nature of your doubts. Perhaps you can first explain why you don't accept the Srimad Bhagavatam. It seems you have some interest, otherwise you wouldn't be reading the Vedic scriptures, so I'm sure that if you could provide a bit more detail, the devotees may be able to assist you.

Hey you lika da pablam?

Yes, that I do. BTW, I almost didn't finish reading your sentence, were it not for the colorful word at the end, which as it turned out, was pablum.

"Pablam is a good, no?"

I was about to nod out after replying to your first question, but then I saw something green out of the corner of my eye, something colorful, so I continued reading. But to answer your 2nd question, yeth, pablum ith a velly good thing. Indeed it is! A yay-ah!

Ah! you lika da pablam?

Wow. I was about to call it a day for sure, but when my peripheral vision detected something in bold, I thus continued. Just see! Yes, I likey a da pablum, Mama Mia!