Guest guest Posted May 25, 1999 Report Share Posted May 25, 1999 hi: i am srIvats. i have joined the group since i am trying to understand the visishtadvaitik philosophy. can someone enlighten me on the following: it is good to behave naturally at all times. at the same time, one has to exercise control on the human mind and on our behavior.. then isnt exercising control contradictory to natural behavior? regards srivats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 26, 1999 Report Share Posted May 26, 1999 Srivatsan Laxman wrote: > > it is good to behave naturally at all times. at the same time, one has to > exercise control on the human mind and on our behavior.. then isnt > exercising control contradictory to natural behavior? > > regards > srivats The answer to this question really depends on how you define "behaving naturally." For based on what I have learned, when we define natural behavior as striving after material success or satisfying our sense organs, we are really not behaving naturally at all. Our conditioned souls are instead simply reacting, like puppets on a string, to the sins and ignorance associated with eons of turning away from the Lord and identifying ourselves with our physical bodies. Our AchAryans teach that our True Nature and our True Happiness lies in being completely dependent upon and subservient to our Lord Sriman Narayana. It would follow then that the control that we place on our mind and behavior through religious practice really is not un-natural at all, but is a very healthy expression of this true self-awareness. adiyEn, Mohan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 27, 1999 Report Share Posted May 27, 1999 We would agree that it is a natural tendency to love and serve others. We see that we love our family, friends, nation etc., and we also serve the people whom we love. Of course, we are sometimes forced to serve people whom we dont love sometimes, for example a boss whom we dont like. We are also forced to serve our senses and some times we do it voluntarily. The ultimate extension of loving and serving is devotional service to Vishnu. When we serve God, our love for Him devlops and we serve Him more. As Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita "param drstva nivartante" - one loses taste for gross sense gratification as one develops in devotion to the Lord. It is a vouluntary and natural self control. To give an example, as we grow up most of us dont continue playing with sand castles as we did when we were children. Like that as we grow in devotion we stop unwanted materialistic activities. It is perhaps artificial as you said if we just try to stop the senses. But if we lose interest in the material sense gratification as a result of higher taste of devotion, it is very natural and desirable like the giving up sand castles. Rajaram V. Srivatsan Laxman <srivats bhakti <bhakti Wednesday, May 26, 1999 11:48 PM Introduction >hi: > >i am srIvats. i have joined the group since i am trying to understand the >visishtadvaitik philosophy. > >can someone enlighten me on the following: > >it is good to behave naturally at all times. at the same time, one has to >exercise control on the human mind and on our behavior.. then isnt >exercising control contradictory to natural behavior? > >regards >srivats > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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