thehat

I had actually started that other thread. A friend of mine who was interested in KC had those questions. Personally I don't really care about such questions. And whether the facts are correct or not I don't care. I was happy to accept it and move on. After all, I don't care so much about the universe, knowing about the universe isn't what's going to help me really. In spiritual life at least. Unfortunately this friend of mine made a huge deal out of it, and as a result he stopped giving interest into Krsihna conscious philosophy. But mind you, he was a great big idiot to begin with. He wanted to get to the top of the mountain without actually climbing it. He wouldn't practise what Prabhupada recommended in the books in order to have some realisation, and he was trying to nit pick and understand the philosophy from his own limited perspective. He would say "Oh Krsna's philosophy is flawed". Actually his problem was with Srila Prabhupada's purport. But really, there was no flaw in the text at all, the flaw was in his brain.

thanks for posting that was nice. We do as Maharaj has instructed in that class and observe things like Shiva yatri.

Well I don't know too much. But I do know He's white and has four arms. I think he is an expansion of Baladev. He is the original Shiva. He has his loka, I can't remember the name of it, but if Brahma Samhita says that is mahesh dham then you should accept that.

Puja can help you overcome the grief and heart ache provided you perform it for the purpose of gaining knowledge in relation to the experience. It's very sad to hear your story, we all want loving and lasting relationships, but in this world we just can't get that. She may come back to you, or she may not. This is the fact. Please don't be fooled that you can find someone who will give you some magical mantra to bring her back. In this day and age it is not possible. Separation in love is a very hard experience to deal with, but we must learn to tolerate it and understand the meaning behind it. This is part of everyones growth in life. We will all experience this at some stage. Please try to keep yourself productive, perhaps focus on spiritual things. You know a relationship with God is the most fulfilling, you could try that. Hope you're well. There will be love in your future - don't worry.

Thanks for sharing sant prabhu.

Dear mr PrinceGoutham. Your devotion to Lord Shiva is very admirable. But your distaste and in some cases outright hatred for Lord Krsna, Rama and Vaishnavas in general is not very admirable. Now lets just suppose Lord Siva is the Supreme; do you think He would be happy with His devotee (PrinceGhoutam) going around in various forums slandering his supposed subordinates like Lord Krsna and Rama? No, Lord Shiva would not be happy with that. So please shut up! Even Krsna Himself says that one should not slander against Lord Shiva, and that anyone who says is His (Krsna) devotee but has enmity towards Lord Shiva is not actually His (Krsna) devotee. So surely Shiva would not appreciate someone making offenses to the feet of Krsna. Moreover, you are quoting verses out of context and bending them to suit your own point of view. This is known as poisoning shlokas. You have clearly demonstrated a lack of understanding in relation to the meaning of these verses! You should try and learn the real meaning of Gita and Bhagavatam from Vaishnavas. Your are correct in advocating that there have been some instances where Krsna and Rama have worshipped Lord Shiva. But there have also been many instances where Lord Shiva has worshipped Rama and Krsna. What's the big deal over who worships who? The Supreme Personality of Godhead is not one who shows no emotion and/or thankfulness to his subordinates. Just like how an owner of a company sometimes praises his employees and requests the aid of his employees, so God may do the same - that doesn't mean he's no longer God. This subject of why God may worship devatas is lost on you, you think that a God is not able to worship anyone or else he is not God. You should see how Krsna the Supreme God falls at the feet of Srimati Radharani and worships Her in a mood of complete subordination. And for the record, Vaishnava's (maybe not the Iskcon ones) do offer praise to Sada Shiva on the day of Shiva Yatri. At this time we ask Lord Shiva to help us become better devotees of Krsna and remember his glorious pastimes in relation to Krsna etc. Lord Shiva is excellent and it is upheld that he's the best Vaishnava. thanks.

Oh Ken, well now you've just exposed your position. And your position is one of uncertainty. First you present this message as a pure unedited one received directly from Krsna and now you are saying that not all of the message is from Krsna and that the message was just an experiment. Plus you didn't address some of my other questions from my previous post. Krsna advented in this age of Kali in the guise of a devotee by the name of Chaitanya. He'd said: harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha "In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy the only means of deliverance is chanting of the holy name of the Lord. There is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way." Now this statement is spoken by the Lord himself. Don't you think this statement holds some sort of validity then? Why don't you just give the method of chanting the holy names a go? You will certainly get some enlightenment by way of that method as the method is very much bona fide! Just chant Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. And also, you should read the Bhagavad-Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam. You seem to be very interested in these transcendental topics, so those books will cetainly satisfy your spiritual thirst. Please try this. One only needs to read through your comments just once to pick out the inconsistences and flaws in what you're saying. We should all know that spiritual life and spiritual enlightenment is a very real thing. It is not some whimisical process that any tom, dick, or harry can take to and/or attain just like that, nor is it just a matter of going with whatever feels right to us personally and calling it a 'spiritual experience' just because we think it is - as many hippies tend to advocate. I'm sure your well aware of all the hippies that like to make claims that most of their activities are spiritual. We can find out about what is actually spiritual or not spiritual, and the process by which one can attain real spiritual enlightenment by approaching a bona fide guru and by reading bona fide texts such as Srimad Bhagavatam or Bhagavad Gita. This should not be difficult for us all of us to accept as we accept that there are methods and/or processes in place for most things like fixing an engine or treating some sickness. So similarily there a methods in place for attaining spiritual realisation. And finally, you 'think' they don't use words in spirit. Again you only 'think'. Why should we accept this? For the record, Krsna's body is all spirit and He does in fact speak words to people. We know this because we have heard his pastimes in where he's talking with people. We've read and heard his words. And then again you say that God can be realised in a drug induced state. Better to say you can become aware of God's all pervasiveness or existence. But you can't realise God in the true sense of the word. By the end of the trip you don't know his qualities, his name, fame, or past times. This is what is meant to have realisation of God. Thanks.

Hi Ken, please understand that I'm not out to attack you with my comments.. I think what you've just described here and have experienced is the reason why we should be very careful when it comes to taking psychoactive drugs. We know that a hallucination is more or less an illusory perception or delusion. And in addition you must be aware that countless thousands of people who use psychedelics all experience the "one with God" or "I am God" trip. Even I've experienced it, and many other persons I know have too. In fact this so-called experience of being "one with god" is considered to be 'the last snare of maya'. So we have to think about these experiences with great humility to come to terms with what they really were. Now I'm not going to say what you experienced was rubbish, my consciousness does not represent yours, but we can see in the present day that there are such great maha-bhagavats alive today, who are constantly absorbed in thoughts of Krsna, hearing the pastimes of Krsna etc 24 hours a day. And these such devotees don't come and speak things like what you've been saying. Don't you think those devotees would have more credibility over common people like you and I? So why should Krsna entrust such important messages with a common person? Or what exactly sets you aside from a common person? Your revelation is nice, but some things you've said, if they hold true - would somewhat be a contradiction of Krsna's philosophy. So then one may ask himself "Why would Krsna say that?" For example in the Bhagavad-Gita, ch 4, text 40. Krsna says: "but ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain god consciousness; they fall down. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next". But you seem to advocate that the words in shastra are not so important as are the teachings Krsna gives in the heart. Now some persons would be in a catch 22 over this. Krsna speaks a lot about how one must become qualified to know who He is, that one should approach a bona fide spiritual master to learn about Him as well as these other deep truths as it is not possible for us to understand these things on our own accord. And so even Krsna takes a guru, as do his other incarnations - Just to set the example for us that by approaching a proper Guru we can learn these higher truths. And so then you approach a guru. But then guru's say that we are not yet qualified to understand or know Krsna, let alone to hear Krsna in ourselves because we are too contaminated, and that it really takes someone who is mature in their spiritual life to be able to relate with Paramatma (Lord in the heart) because then only can that qualified yogi be able to discriminate between the relentless babble of his mind and that which is truly divine. So then you must forgive the sceptical nature of one who has taken to a spiritual path without the help of drugs as he would more than likely be taking into consideration the position of your own spiritual life, he'd be considering what your qualities are - and what ultimately makes you so qualified to receive such a message that's supposedly meant for the whole world. Because after all, that message you've typed there seems not like it is just for your own personal sake, but it's as if it's meant for the whole world. And you've certainly presented it in such a way. And now seeing as how your message is a relatively new one that's meant for the world, then shouldn't you make arrangements so that you could go and preach this message all over the wolrd? Afterall, if this message is truly from Krsna it must be authoritative, and thus you should go and preach it.If Krsna gives a message for the world then the whole world should definitely hear it, don't you think? Now he has so many elevated devotees over the world who are constantly preaching His glories but He's given it to you. So this must be your work? And there are two other minor problems I have with the message: 01) "we will contact the Krishna entity soon". I have a problem with the way they say the Krishna entity. Why don't they just say we will contact Krsna soon. Krsna is a person, to say "the Krsna entity" kind of gives of the message that he's just a thing. 02) "You all feel so alone, so trapped in your bodies, and thoughts, just reach out and the lord will be there for you". This is perfectly true, but in this part of the message Krsna is suppose to be speaking. Why is Krsna speaking as if the 'lord' is separate from Him? In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krsna speaks of Himself as God/Lord and advises people that it's in their best interest to surrender unto Him. If Krsna says "just reach out and the Lord will be there.." who is this Lord that will be there? Surely it can't be Krsna because otherwise He would've said "I will be there". Sounds a bit like impersonalism. I want to know who this other Lord is. Thanks for bearing with my message, it's not my intent to fight with you, you must forgive my sceptical nature. There have been so many devotees who in the past have taken your sort of approach to spiritual realisation and have experienced what you've experienced and then ultimately deduced it as being bullshit, so the reception of this kind of 'message' may not be so good. And in closing, try and understand what Srila Prabhupada the founder of ISKCON said about spiritual realisation by way of drugs, it is a very intelligent thing to say. "If you could realise God by taking a drug, then the drug must be greater than God".

Haha, I have this mckenna album. He spoke this bit of poetry live during a musical concert. McKenna has some very neat ideas, but even as he himself said - most of it is just mental speculation. In one of the tracks in that album you're quoting he makes a lot of mention into tapping into higher consciousness and alludes to becoming aware of/coming to know of a supreme God. Except he refers to God as mother Gaya. I found that he couldn't quite put his finger on what exactly it was which he states is beckoning all of us to pursue. It's the same position most of us had. We came to know of something all pervasive - God if you like. But we couldn't understand anything further.

I've used salvia a bit. We use to smoke it using a blue flame. It's a very akward substance. It lasts only 5 minutes and your body and mind just feels strange. I didn't notice anything fascinating about it.

Is Hṛdayānanda actually saying this or is he translating a question for someone else?

I've used a little psychedelics in the past, haven't touched them in over two years though. I think psychedelics like magic mushrooms can have very varied effects. In some instances I believed it to have influenced some aspects of my life in a very positive way. But it's not long before the effect wears off. That is to say, during the trip you can learn a lot of things and then after the trip you can have a nice mental state for a couple of weeks. But then it's all finished. One example i can share is that virtually every trip I took I was able to see how cruel meat eating was. I could understand that I was killing a living being and that it was not fair of me to do so. So I would stop eating meat, but this would only last for a few days and then I would revert back to my bad habit of eating meat. Also I thought I had some very spiritual experiences - however thinking over those experiences now I am not sure. In one trip I thought I was some kind of avatar, like an incarnation of Jesus. I guess this was probably because I felt my conciousness to be expanding - I was becoming aware of some rather noble truths. Don't ask me what those 'truth's were because I've forgotten. Point in case of how temporary the so-called enlightenment is. However, what's interesting is in that same trip where I had thought myself to be some divine God (apparently everyone gets this trip though, whether your on psychedelics or not) I'd also believed my friend to be some kind of Space Queen who was worshiped by people all over the universe because of her beauty. So the insanity and enlightenment tends to vary a lot in a trip I think. It's an overall mad experience. Some things seem quite meaningful whereas a lot of other things just seem stupid - when reflecting over the trip of course. However I do think psychedelics are able to reveal some 'important' things to its users, but I don't think in the long run it can take someone very far spiritually. That is to say, it can show you many things - some of which may be quite profound and some of which may be utterly bizarre. But ultimately it kind of just leaves you stranded in the middle of nowhere in the end. You don't know what to do, so thus you can only speculate over what you'd experienced. Also, I think it was my second trip that I took where in I imagined myself to be Lord Shiva, or I just got a lot of visuals of Him - I can't remember anymore, anyway - I think it was this trip where I started getting visuals of what a hellish planet would look like and started thinking immensely about death. I was getting halucinations of all sorts of interesting dimensions. It was a very overwhelming experience, and in the end I was able to realise God as a real thing that exists. But I could not say what God was I was only left to speculate about it. Therfore I was on my own. Maybe this was something like a realisation of the self-effulgent brahman?! So yeah, I used to have a ritual of taking things like mescaline, mushrooms etc. But then I started reading the Gita and things were kind of put in perspective for me so I felt I didn't need psychedelics any more. I felt that if i took those things it would be a step down for me. I've no grudge against them though, they were a nice distraction.

This is very nicely written

In that picture? Krsna and Srimati Radharani, Krsna's eternal consort.

Here try this link, maybe it'll help you out. Dharma self defense: http://www.stephen-knapp.com/dharma_self_defense.htm It seems to be designed for the main purpose of refuting christian arguments against hinduism/sanatan dharma.

Oh wow! yes now I see. I spotted the 6 f's. It's astonishing how I overlooked the other 3.

nah there's only three f's. JOKE = FAIL!

Thanks to all of you for your responses, I've forwared the responses onto my friend.

Thanks for providing that bit of Kesava Kasmiri's Commentary - he accepted that I think. He said he went to the Sunday feast last night for the first time and raised this issue and some devotees were being quite confrontational with him, trying to quarrel with him so to speak about material science etc, and not listening to what he had to say. So this makes things much harder now.

Thanks for all your replys. It was the case that this person was very bent on pointing out the major flaw that the moon is one of the stars and is among the stars. I personally don't know how to address this issue, I've taken into consideration that it may be a translation error. But, in the end this person obviously is now so bent on this issue he feels can not advance in Krishna consciousness until this issue is resolved. Such a petty issue to be caught up on, he is now doubting the authority of Srila Prabhupada's purports, and possibly Krishna. Such a shame, it's interesting to see how one can let his own foolishness and pettiness keep him down.

Yeah the verse sounds like a metaphor, but the content of the purport is lost on my friend. He can't seem to accept the moon to be a star or there being more than one sun.

Unfortunately I can't edit the original post. Hope everyone sees this; this persons query relates to Chapter 10, text 21 of Prabhupada's Gita. Thanks

Hey thanks for your reply primate. I'm not sure whether he'll figure it out. Basically his query relates to Chapter 10 text 21 of Prabhupada's translation of Gita. Thought I should mention this anyway

Thanks for the response. Just a reminder to you, this is not my query. It is a friends. Once I have bunch of responses I will send the email back to him with the answers.

A friend of mine had sent me this email today, I'm unable to help him with his particular issue. It would be greatly appreciated if you all could provide some feedback to his query as I have no understanding of astronomy or the universe. His letter as follows: "The theory that there are many suns within the universe is not accepted in vedic litrature" - please explain this from a scientific / astronomical perspective. My mother is an astronomer and has been studying stars like our sun and much greater than our sun for more than 15 years, in which time she has also descovered planets orbiting such stars. "The sun is one, and as by the reflection of the sun the moon illuminates, so also do the stars" If this was a reality, we would be able to see the many moons of Jupitor and saturn with the nakid eye, and stars like alpha centauri would cease to exist, also we wouldn't have photographs of blackholes, as these are created when giant star masses thousands of times larger than our sun come to the end of their life span and collapse in on themself creating a rip in space and time. "Since Bhagavad Gita indicates herein that the moon is one of the stars, the twinkling stars are not suns but are similar to moons" Stars orbit galaxies, planets orbit stars, satellites ( like our moon ) orbit planets. to suggest that stars are similar to moons is very vauge and ignorant. As far as celestial bodies are concerned, taking into account size matter and nature of orbit, moons and stars couldn't be more dislike each other. The only similarity is that they have an orbit, and arguably, everything does. Please restore my faith and conviction in this doctrine. Hare Krishna