vaisnavapada 0 Report post Posted June 18, 2004 Hare Krsna! Jaya Srila Prabhupada! My greetings to all at this forum. I am quite new to Krsna Consciousness, you can say about 2 months, and I only pray to Krsna, no japa or anything as of yet. After I started Krsna Consciousness, at first I was so looking forward to becoming pure, but then for the last month or so I've been constantly struggling with my mind which is imagining out of control so many of my past sinful activities but now it is adultering what I know of K C philosophy. /images/graemlins/frown.gif I feel like I've become worse, and my thoughts are out of control. My ego thinks that I am ok but I know I am not because why else would these adultered thoughts come? So I do not even know what paying respect to the lotus feet of God and the Spiritual Master, nor do I know what humility is. I guess I just blindly follow the philosophy. From time to time I get a nice state of mind where I feel I can totally surrender to Swami Prabhupada's teachings and Krsna and at others times my mind is totally full of doubts, concocting, imagining etc...I have come here in hopes of seeking advice from devotees who can possibly help me out with the questions that I have and might have in the future. I am so lucky to be posting here because I do not know what my life would be if I couldn't someway associate with some devotees at least through here, thank God, thank you devotees for any little help is appreciated Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted June 18, 2004 From time to time I get a nice state of mind where I feel I can totally surrender to Swami Prabhupada's teachings and Krsna and at others times my mind is totally full of doubts, concocting, imagining etc... hare krishna... you are a very nice person accepting to serve krsna and vaishnavas, you are actively making this world a better place to live, so please accept my humble obeisances you have not to worry, we have layers and layers of material contamination on our heart, so it is not easy to get immediate results from krsna conscious practice if you want really surrender to krsna and prabhupada i suggest to you to follow their simple advice of chanting regularly, every day the mahamantra hare krishna hare krishna krishna krishna hare hare hare rama hare rama rama rama hare hare or, if you want to follow vaishnavas, follow the instructions they have given to get devotion.... and do not worry, simply go on with your life and chant hare krishna the lord's name is non different from the lord himself, so he will give you gradually the devotion without separated effort ask what you want.. we'll try to answer Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vaisnavapada 0 Report post Posted June 18, 2004 Thank you for answering, I found your reply very encouraging. I have a lot of questions but I am going to go very slowly in my questioning because I have a very slow mind which takes awhile to get convinced due to its stubborn nature. My questions is, what does it mean to be fully faithful upon the Spiritual Master and God? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted June 18, 2004 My questions is, what does it mean to be fully faithful upon the Spiritual Master and God? it means to follow strictly their instructions. If you have faith in someone you will take his words as highly valuable. The main instruction of guru and krsna is to think constantly to krsna: Chapter 18. Conclusion--The Perfection of Renunciation TEXT 65 man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru mam evaisyasi satyam te pratijane priyo 'si me TRANSLATION Always think of Me and become My devotee. Worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend. -- obviously it is not easy at all, and we have not to do it artificially, we have a life, parents, relatives, family, job and so on and we have to do our social duties.. so the way recommended by guru and krsna to develope the constant remembering of Him is to chant regularly the mahamantra on the japa mala in a fixed number everyday -- for now your personal shelter is srila prabhupada through his books, very soon krsna will send you a personal, present spiritual master to have personal advice and instructions.. chanting hare krsna is calling for service and we serve krsna through the spiritual master Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vaisnavapada 0 Report post Posted June 18, 2004 Thanks for replying Y.D You say that accepting the instructions of the Spiritual Master is faith. How can one go about being released from the minds habit of mental concoction, so that one can strictly follow the instructions of the Spiritual Master? Also, are all the literary sources (Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam etc...) instructions also, or are they of some other category? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted June 18, 2004 How can one go about being released from the minds habit of mental concoction, so that one can strictly follow the instructions of the Spiritual Master? one has to pray krsna to send him a true pure spiritual master so autoritative and expert that he automatically (but not blindly!) take his instructions as autoritative and follows them . But there's no problem in having a very active mind and good intelligence, and spiritual master does not come to make us mindless robots but to enhamce our possibilities and to come back to our original nature of CIT.. spiritually conscious and intelligent eternal spiritual souls. But the biggest help is chanting hare krishna. We cannot really control our mind, but krsna can easily do it.. so if we simply and humbly follow the procedure to chant attentively a fixed number of mahamantras on the japa mala every day in the number recommended by our spiritual master.. krsna will come and will give us the control of our mind, peace, spiritual bliss and complete understanding Also, are all the literary sources (Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam etc...) instructions also, or are they of some other category? the sacred literature, especially if the meaning is explained by pure spiritual masters, is absolutely instruction, advice, prayer, training, school, pleasure, enlightening, culture and so on... but we need also a pure present personal spiritual masters to have an "interactive" relationship, to ask advices for our specific situation so, for now chant hare krsna and read books.. krsna, seing your desire, will send you a pure spiritual master to surrender to... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vaisnavapada 0 Report post Posted June 19, 2004 Thanks for the reply Guest, Regarding the chanting, is it ok if one chants in the mind? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted June 19, 2004 no objections.. but it is higly recommended by all tradition to use the voice at a level that we can hear it we have a very little concentration capacity, if we use the voice it is much more easy to be attentive. in this way we also give great benefit to the souls that are hearing the hari nama from us.. microbs, insects, plants.. and even all the people in the world who do not hear with he material senses but get the benefit as spiritual souls Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vaisnavapada 0 Report post Posted June 19, 2004 Thank you Y.D for the reply, Regarding the quality of humility, what is the best way for an arrogant, self centered person like myself to learn humility? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted June 19, 2004 Regarding the quality of humility, what is the best way for an arrogant, self centered person like myself to learn humility? everyone of us is fallen from the spiritual soul with the purpose of forgetting sri krsna and his being our god and master so we are arrogant because we do not recognize his role in the universe putting ourselves at his place so you are not saying anything new again there's not to negate your personality or doing something drastic to change your character... the only one who can control our mind is krsna, so the only system to have our mind controlled, to find humbleness.. is to chant hare krishna to call krsna at our help another way is to associate with vaishnavas, especially highly realized vaishnavas and spiritualists.. they are so great, mercyful and autoritative that automatically we feel ourselves humble in their comparison and we understand exactly our position of servants of the servants of the servants..... of krsna bhagavan Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vaisnavapada 0 Report post Posted June 19, 2004 Thanks Y.D, What can one do if he is in such a position where contact with any genuine vaishnava is not possible due to geographical locations? Also, if one is obliged to do his social duty(work, school etc...), what is one supposed to do when one is in such a position where what is taught at the school or university or college is directly in opposition to the teachings of the vedas? (IE: I will be attending university soon for a degree in engineering. Although the Vedas say these are materialistic knowledge, how can one possibly utilize it to serve The Spiritual Master and The Lord in a spiritual way although it is materialistic knowledge? What should be the mindset of one in such a position? Should he aspire to do good in materialistic knowledge or purposefully hold back the intelligence fearing that he/she is indulging in fruitive activities?) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted June 19, 2004 What can one do if he is in such a position where contact with any genuine vaishnava is not possible due to geographical locations? ««the real contact with the genuine vaishnava is given by the mercy of the vaishnava and krsna, even if you are close.. so please chant hare krsna with ful faith and pray krsna to help you. maybe you can speak with devotees and speaking about krsna in internet to have some association (IE: I will be attending university soon for a degree in engineering. Although the Vedas say these are materialistic knowledge, how can one possibly utilize it to serve The Spiritual Master and The Lord in a spiritual way although it is materialistic knowledge? ««the activity that we do in the life is not too important. All of us have karma, guna , features, duties and so on.. we have to do something in the society. So if your karma is to work as engineer there's no problem, do it and take the university instructions as something to learn a technique, a job, not to understand life and nature. The important thing is that you cultivate carefully your devotion. If you surrender to krsna and spiritual master, chanting constantly hare krsna mahamantra all your life will be sanctified and your job will be devotional service, you will give a great example to the society how being happy and successiful in all the aspects of life following krsna consciousness.. the example, the happiness are the best preaching What should be the mindset of one in such a position? ««learn very well your job.. if the teachings of university are against vedic principles feel free to ask to other devotees, doubts will never abandone us, even if we do not study sciences at the university... so nothing strange, no problem Should he aspire to do good in materialistic knowledge or purposefully hold back the intelligence fearing that he/she is indulging in fruitive activities? «««follow arjuna's example... you are you, with your capacities, skills, techniques, culture, tastes, charachter, behaviour, intelligence, strenght and so on.. you have nothing else to offer to krsna, so do not take away what is already krsna's property.. you are krsna's property!.. so do happily your life and chant hare krishna. Krsna is the master of our mind, senses, karma and so on.. if we follow him, he will guide us hare krishna!!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vaisnavapada 0 Report post Posted June 19, 2004 Thanks again Y.D, You said that one should chant the mahamantra always. All the time while chanting, my mind gives me trouble by thinking of my unwanted habits or materialistic desires. During such times, I feel guilty that I should not chant and sin at the same time, thus I stop the chanting. What do you see as the solution to this dilemma? How can I possibly avoid chanting and sinning? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted June 19, 2004 During such times, I feel guilty that I should not chant and sin at the same time, thus I stop the chanting. ••this is the greatest trick of maya.. do not believe her!! she is telling you that to respect the mahamantra you have to stop the chanting. No, it is the opposite!! Chanting is the medicine also to cure offensive chanting.. so go on and have no problems What do you see as the solution to this dilemma? ••chant... How can I possibly avoid chanting and sinning? ••chant... only chant can make us forget the sin. Krsna is the all attractive, much more than the sins.. if we let him gradually enter in our life, there will be no more place for maya Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vaisnavapada 0 Report post Posted June 20, 2004 Thank you Y.D, In the beginning of ones spiritual endeavour, is one only supposed to chant or is one supposed to read Bhagavad Gita also while chanting? Is it necessary to chant with beads or can one memorize how many rounds one does after each successful round like write it down on a piece of paper etc..? I fear that in university I will be occupied with a lot of materialistic studies thus I will not have enough time to read the KC philosophy. What can one do in such a situation to always remember Sri Hari and the Spiritual Master's instructions? What are some of the serious attacks of Mayadevi that a neophyte will experience? Finally, is being impatient an impediment? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted June 20, 2004 In the beginning of ones spiritual endeavour, is one only supposed to chant or is one supposed to read Bhagavad Gita also while chanting? ••you must do both things.. some chanting to pray and call krsna and some gita to understand who's the one you're calling and what he asks to you Is it necessary to chant with beads or can one memorize how many rounds one does after each successful round like write it down on a piece of paper etc..? ••tulasi beads are a sacred object, so it is better to chant with them... but if there's no possibility one has to chant in any other way.. sometimes i chant using my cell phone with the function of sms writing. I write a charachter for every mahamantra i chant, the phone counts the charachters number.. at 108 i finished a round I fear that in university I will be occupied with a lot of materialistic studies thus I will not have enough time to read the KC philosophy ••i do not know your personal situation, but you will have something to do in your life, a job, an activity... try to study and practice more as possible, chant hare krsna and consider your study your devotional service. Do not leave the battle, follow arjuna's example What can one do in such a situation to always remember Sri Hari and the Spiritual Master's instructions? ••nothing special... the krsna's remembering is krsna's grace, we cannot get krsna, he's krsna who is giving himself to us, so please do your life, be happy and chant a fixed number of mahamantras everyday.. if possible starting from four rounds and not decreasing. And wait, mahamantra will do the job, he's omnipotent What are some of the serious attacks of Mayadevi that a neophyte will experience? ••we are all neophites.... a great attack could be the impatience and the illusion that krsna consciousness is to give up our duties, job, study, life, family krsna says "surrender to me..." but it has to be done gradually and giving all ourselves to krsna.. fi we stop to act, if we give up our life, what we can offer to krsna? Finally, is being impatient an impediment? ••a very big one!! cure it being impatient to chant more as possible /images/graemlins/smile.gif Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pankaja_Dasa 1 Report post Posted June 20, 2004 http://sampradaya.4t.com/SriNamamritaTheNectaroftheHolyName.html The Link is also in my Signature. I have not read the whole thread, just the part about chanting, well look here, the Holy Name is Pure, we are NOT, so how is it possible to NOT think impure thoughts in the start, unless you were great devotee from the start. Its called the 'Clearing stage' we all need to find out about this, if it will help us chant, anything that will make you chant you should accept it, esp I'd say hearing from a Pure Devotee, hearing is essential, because it makes our faith grow, try to hear much as you can, on Headphones, car, then even without knowing it, you will Start, I cannot say don't worry, because you will, unless you find a Guru whom you surrender to, you will always worry. Have to go, haribol! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vaisnavapada 0 Report post Posted June 20, 2004 Thank you both for the replies. I think for now I need to meditate on these answers and I'll reply when more questions arise. Thanks again for helping me out. Hare Krsna! Jaya Srila Prabhupada! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted June 20, 2004 hare krishna.. please keep chanting Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
