Guest guest Posted December 20, 2002 Report Share Posted December 20, 2002 Dear Prisni, Thanks for your explanation. I am definately learning the concept behind all religion. When an ordinary person like me donot understand we view certain action differently but Knowledge wipes our ignorance and clears our perception. There was a time - I did not understand the meaning of deity with different forms but now I do and I appreciate its significance. You all seems to be foreigner's to Indian culture - can you narrate your first experience to our religion. Infact, you all are masters in our scriptures. What inspired you and how did you manage to learn sanskrit and find a guru. I am simply curious, for you all are scholars in your field. I look forward to hearing from you or other list members regarding their experiences. kind regards, raji. left over food of others and even dogs. This is more tolerable than the > > former. > > > > My question is why a realised soul take this effort to demonstrate or >prove > > to themselves that they are above mortals. > >Someone becomes realised, but is still in the body. So the question is >"what >then". Realization obviously didn't lead to immediate extincion or >(physical) >merging with brahman or something. Some are said to extinguish their body, >although I have never seen that, but then we don't see them walking around >either. > >Vaisnava bhakti perfection is (maybe) different, since what you look for is >"love" (bhakti) and to develop your own identity. It is a gradual approach. >That day you have developed your own identity to the degree that you will >remain exactly the same person, even after the end of this incarnation, you >are said to be jivan-mukta. Meaning liberated while still in the body. The >material ego (ahankara) of an identity belonging to the body is completely >eradicated. Still, a jivan-mukta utilises the body, with its inherent >karmic >limitations, making it hard to see who is liberated. If all liberated >persons >would disappear from the face of the earth, when they get liberated, there >would be no one to teach others and to show an example, and thus make it >impossible or very hard for us others to reach that platform. So a certain >number stays, just to show us "you can do this too, just follow my >example". > >Eating abinomible things might be interesting as a kind of demonstration of >detachment, but is it a good example for others to follow? I certainly >don't >want to reach a state where I can eat dog food or stool. > >Prisni > _______________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail&xAPID=42&PS=47575&PI=7324&DI=74\ 74&SU= http://www.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/getmsg&HL=1216hotmailtaglines_addphotos_3mf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 21, 2002 Report Share Posted December 21, 2002 fredagen den 20 december 2002 19.18 skrev rajeshwari iyer: > You all seems to be foreigner's to Indian culture - can you narrate your > first experience to our religion. Infact, you all are masters in our > scriptures. What inspired you and how did you manage to learn sanskrit and > find a guru. I am simply curious, for you all are scholars in your field. As usual I don't know exactly what to say. I don't know my own history. But it is not that I am a westener that "finds" India. I lived in India in a previous life, and know India very well. It is the west which is alien and I have a hard time figuring out. I even find the west quite fearful. Western religions and philosophy I find alien and incomprihensable. In one phase in my life, I wanted to move to India, but the somehow I finally understood that I already have left India, from a previous life, and turning back now would be to again eat what I have already discarded. So I instead started to ask myself why I left India, and took birth here. What is the purpose? I can almost remember my last lifetime in India. What I wanted, and desires. The strong desires and impressions are like weak echoes within me that has formed the current life. So also by looking at the current life, and looking at myself, I can figure out something of how it was before and where I should go now. Now as a woman in Sweden i am free. I am my own. In addition I have no family or relatives. That, the lack of family and relatives sometimes makes my life feel empty, fearful, but that is due to the past where I felt that family and all the relatives strangled me. As a young Indian woman, previously, I could not decide about my own life, but had to live the life others decided to me, and I just could not tolerate it and wanted freedom. So I got my freedom. But like everything, freedom has its price. There are many more things. Some things mistakes, some things good. My life now is the product of past desires. Better not do the same mistakes again. As a young woman, in the past in India, I was very beautiful and very desirable by men, I knew it and expected it. But I also despised men who was attracted by my beauty. I was doing some worship. Maybe it was Kali that I was worshiping, since She feels so natural to me, and I have absolutely no fear infor Her. I had some blessings, or siddhis, if you so want, and also a bad temper. You figure out the rest. A combination of bad character and Shakti worship is not the best. My good luck is that I somehow got the blessings of a Vaisnava. Or maybe I got very attracted by a bhakta Vaisnava. I don't know exactly. But the blessing turned into that I in this life, while suffering the karmic reactions of my past doings, also got the opportunity to perform bhakti sadhana which has painfully purified me from many of those character faults and turned my worshipable divine Mother into Radha. But my past Shakta side is still there. My story is strange, or maybe not. It is just the kind of story that we can read about in (for examples) the puranas. We just don't think those things would happen to us. But they do. Those stories tell us to look at our past lifes, when trying to understand this. To look back, and forward. Today maybe many Indians look at the west, as a kind of blessing. All that material opulence and facilities. Maybe? I don't know. But it is not heaven. It is hell. All those material facilities have a price. And the price is high. Very high. Prisni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 23, 2002 Report Share Posted December 23, 2002 Dear Prisni, Thanks for sharing. I asked this question because Indian scriptures are in Devangiri Language. This is difficult for local natives to read & understand - though its alphabets are largely similar to hindi which we are familiar with. If you are into Mantra's then one need to have an understanding of scriptures, hence, my question. Thanks once again. Kind regards, raji. > > You all seems to be foreigner's to Indian culture - can you narrate your > > first experience to our religion. Infact, you all are masters in our > > scriptures. What inspired you and how did you manage to learn sanskrit >and > > find a guru. I am simply curious, for you all are scholars in your >field. > >As usual I don't know exactly what to say. I don't know my own history. But >it >is not that I am a westener that "finds" India. I lived in India in a >previous life, and know India very well. It is the west which is alien and >I >have a hard time figuring out. I even find the west quite fearful. Western >religions and philosophy I find alien and incomprihensable. > >In one phase in my life, I wanted to move to India, but the somehow I >finally >understood that I already have left India, from a previous life, and >turning >back now would be to again eat what I have already discarded. So I instead >started to ask myself why I left India, and took birth here. What is the >purpose? > >I can almost remember my last lifetime in India. What I wanted, and >desires. >The strong desires and impressions are like weak echoes within me that has >formed the current life. So also by looking at the current life, and >looking >at myself, I can figure out something of how it was before and where I >should >go now. > >Now as a woman in Sweden i am free. I am my own. In addition I have no >family >or relatives. That, the lack of family and relatives sometimes makes my >life >feel empty, fearful, but that is due to the past where I felt that family >and >all the relatives strangled me. As a young Indian woman, previously, I >could >not decide about my own life, but had to live the life others decided to >me, >and I just could not tolerate it and wanted freedom. So I got my freedom. >But >like everything, freedom has its price. > >There are many more things. Some things mistakes, some things good. My life >now is the product of past desires. Better not do the same mistakes again. > >As a young woman, in the past in India, I was very beautiful and very >desirable by men, I knew it and expected it. But I also despised men who >was >attracted by my beauty. I was doing some worship. Maybe it was Kali that I >was worshiping, since She feels so natural to me, and I have absolutely no >fear infor Her. I had some blessings, or siddhis, if you so want, and also >a >bad temper. You figure out the rest. A combination of bad character and >Shakti worship is not the best. > >My good luck is that I somehow got the blessings of a Vaisnava. Or maybe I >got >very attracted by a bhakta Vaisnava. I don't know exactly. But the blessing >turned into that I in this life, while suffering the karmic reactions of my >past doings, also got the opportunity to perform bhakti sadhana which has >painfully purified me from many of those character faults and turned my >worshipable divine Mother into Radha. But my past Shakta side is still >there. > >My story is strange, or maybe not. It is just the kind of story that we can >read about in (for examples) the puranas. We just don't think those things >would happen to us. But they do. Those stories tell us to look at our past >lifes, when trying to understand this. To look back, and forward. >Today maybe many Indians look at the west, as a kind of blessing. All that >material opulence and facilities. Maybe? I don't know. But it is not >heaven. >It is hell. All those material facilities have a price. And the price is >high. Very high. > >Prisni > > _______________ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 3 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail&xAPID=42&PS=47575&PI=7324&DI=7474&SU\ = http://www.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/getmsg&HL=1216hotmailtaglines_smartspamprotec\ tion_3mf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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