indulekhadasi

The majority of the people who are inclined towards this term have antiquity as the reason. There will always be a handful who deviate from the mainstream, but for realisitic reasons we will stick the mainstream version and not bother with individual opinions.

 

 

 

There is the truth and then sometimes our own self-concoted versions of what the truth must be. Your version of Sanatana Dharma is one of these concocted cases.

 

A few years back, Sanatana Dharma was coined as a term to label Indian religion in place of Hindu by Indian Patriots much like renaming Bomaby as Mumbai. The people who coined this term did not have Hare Krishna Vaishnavism in mind nor were they trying to shut out beliefs disliked by Hare Krishnas. Now if you want to step up and redefine the meaning of this label to suit your own preferences, then that would be a gargantuan task as you will have to make a case strong enough to convince millions of Hindus who have no interest in Hare Krishna religion. Feel up to the task?

 

 

 

Contradicting yourself. Krishna tells Arjuna to abandon all varieties of Dharma which includes Sanatana Dharma (either the standard version or your own custom version) too, don't you think? By saying this you are just knocking off your own earlier support for Sanatana Dharma.

 

Hinduism goes far beyond Krishna, a point hard to grasp by western Hare Krishnas who mostly see Indian religion through the little Hare Krishna spyglass. The simple fact of the matter, the majority of India do not even bother with the Bhagavad Gita. But if you have not spent enough time in experiencing India's various flavors of religion, you will have no clue what Hinduism means. And since this is the case with most of the people here, sweeping statements of ignorance on what Hinduism is or isn't will only show you in a bad light.

 

The Hare Krishnas have up until now been very successful in garnering a reputation as being dogmatic and hotheaded along the same lines as born again Christians. By continuing to pass ignorant comments on Hinduism and claiming alleged superiority of your own belief over every other belief, you are upholding the Hare Krishna reputation as being incapable of looking at the big picture.

 

Western Hare Krishnas can call themselves what they want, but desi Hindus are perfectly happy with their label and have no reason to switch.

 

Cheers

And your pastime is focus on the bad...not one word for all those preachers who go out to preach in the snow and stuff every day, while some people claiming to be true 'hindus' just sit around and gossip (I am not reffering to the Hindu preachers)? Please forgive me if I am misinterpreting you but that doesn't sound very fair!

To state your point about Hinduism, you need not put down all the Hare Krishnas at once.

Wonderful and inspiring story that it brought tears to my eyes. Jai, Hare Bol!! All glories to Radhe Rade

 

Like all the interesting devotees on these threads, this is what happens to a real dedicated Christian, everyone has their story of how they came to Krishna Consciousness

Like RadheRade1657 story, PLEASE LETS HEAR MORE, theist, HerServant, Beggar, gHari, indulekhadasi, Guruvani, Krsna and anyone else, for the history books, how did you guys see Krishna Consciousness as a further understanding of the teachings of Jesus or Jehovah? Or even Allah, Buddha or demigod worshipers. Even those born devotees, what is the story of you parents?

Hare Krishna.

I was born in and I am raised in a KC family, but my mom's story has something to do with Lord Jesus.

She came to America at the age of 4 and became influenced by American culture. She went to catholic school in Jersey city because it was safer. She felt very much connected to Lord Jesus.

At the age of 10 she saw Prabhupada for a little bit in the famous NY Ratha Yatra 1966.

Her mom died when she was only 11. When she died many questions were coming into her mind, especially- where does the soul go? Exactly one year later after her mom's death she found a BTG in her mailbox. She stayed up the whole night reading it and the next day she told her dad that- I had already found the son of God and now I have found my God, too.

As we are Bengalis, many of her aunts and uncles forced her to eat fish. She cried from age 12-14 to Krishna to help her become a vegetarian. Finally she decided when she was 14 that she wouldn't touch meat, fish or eggs anymore. And from that time on she also started chanting 16 rounds and going to temple. She finally got initiated when she was 18, and is continuing to practice Krishna Consciousness today.

Haribol.

Jai Nitai!

indulekhadasi

Is this true that women are not able to keep a secret?

I dunno, but so far all the women I have seen have NOT been able to keep a secret. They have to tell at least one person.

HARE KRISHNA !!

 

Sorry to but in , but, one of yous could clarify this for me--

WHO IS KARAN ? WHAO WAS KARAN IN HIS PREVIOUS LIFE ?

I have read a few abriged versions of the MAHABHRAT and know about him being son of kunti and suriya's son-elder brother of the pandavas-adopted by radha..ect

Kulapavana-- I just got the MAHABHARAT by GANGULI-- AND as u said its HUGE ! have NOT STARTED READING IT YET ! -- WILL START ON 1/01/2008--

A few years ago i was blessed to be at gangotri-gaumuch-the source of the GANGA- mother of BHISMA !- and i met a sashu- and we were discussing the MAHABHRAT-- My hindi is useless and the sadhus english was not too good either-- so it was a bit difficult to understand one another--but what i gathered is something like this-- that

KARAN died in KRISHNAS arms !!--KRISHNA was the first to call him KAUNTIYA !-- and it was KRISHNA WHO PERFORMED HIS LAST RITES !!

from that i would say that KARAN must have been a great devotee of the lord !!!!

 

The other thing was his previous life-- which i did not understand--

KRISHNA + ARJUN is NAR-NARAYAN--NAR-NARAYAN was fighting with a 1000 armours -"kavatch"-- and the last one escaped into the sun-- and now KRISHNA + ARJUN destroys the last "kavach" armour-- ?????

 

YOURS

jaswant

Karna was probably a demigod living on the sun planet.

Karna did not die in Krishna's arms, and Kunti was the actualy the first one to inform him that he was her son. Krishna was the second one to tell him and to ask him to come to Indraprastha to be the king, which Karna refused. Yes, Krishna and Yudhisthira performed the last rites of Karna. But they had done so for all the people on the Kaurava side.

Yudhisthira, was of course very affected by his brothers death. He became somewhat angry with his mother for hiding this fact for so long and then cursed all of womankind- that they would never be able to keep a secret.

I watched the video and liked it lots.

Since you have already started from Abhimanyu's perspective, therefore it is quite natural for you to finish writing that first.

 

But, I personally find Bhisma's character very interesting.

 

Satayvati's father put a condition that Shantanu could marry Satyavati only if her son would become king after Shantanu. In all respects, Bhisma was perfect to be a king and people deserved a good king. On one hand, Bhisma had the option of becoming king after Shantanu and thus giving a good king to people. On the other hand, he had the option of accepting Satyavati's father's condition when it was not even known whether future son of Satyavati would be able or not. Bhisma must have been in dilemma.

 

Bhisma was never attached to luxurious life. Even in his young age, he could have happily lived in some ashram. But, in order to fulfill his

duties towards the throne, he decided to stay in Hatinapur. He fulfilled all duties of a king without actually being a king. He never tried to usurp the kingdom though he could have easily done that.

 

When he had taken the vow of celibacy, then it must be difficult for him to go to swyambara even though he was looking for wife for Vichitravirya.

 

In his heart, he knew that Duryodhan was wrong but his vow was forcing him to side with Duryodhan. He must have been in a very big dilemma about right and wrong. On one hand, fulfill one's vow. And on the other hand, oppose adharma. In fact, it must be difficult for him to even decide what was dharma for him.

 

Bhisma's character shows various battles that people fight with themselves in their own minds.

I am glad that you liked the video of Ekachakra dhama!

Bhishma and Karna, even though they were not on good terms, are quite like each other. They are both disciples of Parshuram and both have many twists and turns in their lives. Personally though, I like Bhishma much more as he is a mahajana and a great devotee of the Lord.

Yes, it is a very beautiful place

I have to watch that every day, otherwise I feel really deprived.

It is well worth the effort. At one time I was comparing one of the abridged versions to the Ganguli's text and I have quickly found several important errors. Most of the abridged versions are simply translations of other abridged versions in hindi, bengali, or other indian language. Thus the errors and fanciful interpretations get copied over. I dont trust any of these abridged versions.

True enough, prabhuji!

And did you get to see the video of Ekachakra dhama?

the soul does not sleep

There is only one full translation in English, that of Kisori Mohan Ganguli, and it is by far the best source of information. None of the abridged versions come even close to it as many of these books contain substantial factual errors. I would not consider writing anything Mahabharata related without first reading that text thoroughly.

 

After reading that text (and it is HUGE!) I could never read the abridged Mahabharatas again.

I have read only snippets of the hole text. This is supposed to be the exact translation of the Mahabharata, so yes, it is very factual.

However the english is kind of archaic, which makes it a little more difficult to read.

If I were to write, I'd write from the perspective of Karna, a very interesting character. Whether you love him or hate him, you can't deny he's the most confusing, inspiring, heroic, hateful, and pretty much every other contradiction rolled into one!

Yes, I feel for Karna very much. He had so many twists in his life, and he was a great one for charity. But since I have already started from Abhimanyu's veiwpoint I better finish that one first.

If you read the unabridged Mahabharata there is much, much more to that story. Bhishma actually cared for her a lot and she did for him too. He had his spies bring him all the information about her during her entire life as Amba. It was not a case of a simple revenge motive.

 

Anyway, these were real people, not clay models of "ideal Vaishnavas", caught in events much bigger than they were.

According to my limited knowledge, she cared for him up to the point where Shalva rejected her. I might be wrong. Of couse, if I placed myself in her position I might have done exactly what she did. No one likes to be rejected. I can't remember the exact quote but I remember Srila Prabhupada saying that Amba acted the way she did because she did not have the proper Vaishnavi mentality.

BTW, which version of the Mahabharata did you read? I would be interested to read it if I haven't already.

The seven immortals mentioned in the puranas (Ashvathama, Bali, Vyasa, Hanumana, Kripa, Vibhishana and Parashurama), none can, except perhaps Hanumana, claim divine status.

Most people know about the tv series Mahabharat and in the series there are some soul stirring bhajans. I think most of them are Sant surdas pads. Does anyone have the soundtrack to the B.R. Chopra Mahabarat series. I would appreciate any help. Thank you in advance.

 

Jai Shri Krishna

Unfortunately no, but if you ever find out tell me too!

Oh...and prabhuji, did you see the video?

Jai Nitai!

Interesting. One time I was thinking about writing a Mahabharata story written from Sikhandin's (Amba's) perspective. That would have been a real tearjerker (weepie)

No offense, but I really HATE Sikhandhi. If, as Amba she had the mentality of a Vaishnavi she wouldn't have been so revengeful. But no, all she thought of was her own insult. She should have told Bhishma beforehand that she wanted to marry King Shalva. Bhishmadeva did the proper thing by sending her back, I mean what else can he do?

It would be interesting to write something like that, but I have hardly any sympathy for Sikhandhi.

Thank you very much I will try what you say.

Jai Nitai!

Sooo inspiring! Jai Nitai!

Yes, this is true. However, it depends upon the depth of our mood. One person may diligently chant 16 rounds and follow the 4 regulative principles for 30 or 40 years without developing much of a taste (due to the fact that bhakti is not a mechanical process) while for another person that taste may come fairly quickly. One of the nine processes of bhakti (along with sravanam kirtanam, vishno smaranam, etc.) is vandanam, offering prayers to the Lord with great feeling. Causeless mercy descends according to our hankering and greed to receive it. In that regard, here is another excerpt from the 9th Chapter of Nectar of Devotion:

I definitely agree with you that simply by chanting 16 rounds and follow the 4 regs you might not get any ruci. Yesterday I was reading The Heart of Krishna by BP Puri Maharaja and I realized that mostly this was due to Vaishnava aparadha. I know this is off topic but after reading your post this is what came into my mind.

And anyway, isn't chanting a part of raganuga bhakti? If we were on the platform of raganuga bhakti, I would think we would want to chant MORE than 16 rounds, chanting would be almost impossible to stop.

Another part of sādhana-bhakti is called rāgānugā. Rāgānugā refers to the point at which, by following the regulative principles, one becomes a little more attached to Krsna, and executes devotional service out of natural love.

Hey IndulekhaDasi! I hope you had a merry Christmas!

Thank you, I hope you have had the same.

Maybe Ambika? Just a guess.

So, he is not mentioned in any official scriptures suddenly he is not real? The lord has descended upon this world thousands of times before, I wouldn't say it is too far fetched to believe that perhaps one of his avatars (or in this case his children) wasn't recognized by most of the Hindu community instantly. Btw folklore doesn't mean some sort of myth of fairytale.

Thank you for giving me a broader veiw on this subject. Do you know if he has been written about in any Keralan scripture?

If you are miles away from Ekachakra dhama but you have a desire to have darshan of the dhama then simply watch this video and your desire will be fulfilled.

http://www.archive.org/details/Nitaai-00001Ekachakra263

Thank you very much.

Jai Nitai!

What/where is this border?

Where is the border between finite and infinite, infinite and finite.

We are part and parcel of the infinite soul.