Truth??

[Guest guest]

What is truth? I remeber once my physics

professor asking us how do you know that what you see is

true? We were studing light at that time. That got me

thinking.<br>Who is greater - Shiva or Kirshna(Vishnu)? Ask a

Shaivite, Shiva is supreme. Ask a Vaishnavite, Krishna

rules. I remember a Vaishnav friend saying once that in

some villages in Tamil Nadu in India even today, a

Vaishnav person would rather face a ferocious tiger rather

than enter a Shiva temple.<br>Great souls like Shri

RamakrishnaParamahamsa have said that when one has reached that level of

God Consciousness - Krishna is as supreme as Shiva or

Brahma or Ganesha or Durga or whoever. It is One. The

One which is manifesting itself as the desired

God.<br>In the Bengali version of Ramayana, after Rama and

Lakshmana had been bound by Indrajit's serpent arrows, Rama

thought of Garuda. Garuda's flapping of wings removed the

snakes and the poison. And Garuda then bowed down to

Rama and said O Lotus Eyed four handed one, I know you

the Supreme Being, but I also know that you are born

as a mortal and will leave this human body. How will

I recognize you then? Rama then said - trust

yourself, ask your innerself and you wll know the truth.

Garuda said he was a Bhakta and wanted to see God as a

person. Rama then appeared before Garuda as

Krishna.<br>As Shri Ramakrishna says "Once some blind men

chanced to come near an animal that someone told them was

an elephant. They were asked what the elephant was

like. The blind men began to feel its body. One of them

said the elephant was like a pillar; he had touched

only its leg. Another said it was like a winnowing

fan. But, what is the elephant like?<br><br>Tagore's

has a small poem which talks about Rath Yatra. A

brief background - Rabindranath Tagore was a member of

the Brahmo Samaj which was a Advaitic society. Image

worship was not allowed. They meditated on the Supreme

Being. Tagore wrote <br>"At the Rath Yatra there is a

lot of festivities. People come and bow before the

chariot. The Chariot think people are bowing to it;

<br>the path think the people are praying to it; <br>the

idol thinks they are praying to it; <br>And up in the

skies God just smiles".<br><br>(Please forgive the

awful translation).

[Guest guest]

Again Babu you so neatly said what i could not.

It is wonderful that you as a Devi devotee still

have love for other forms of Bhagavan without

sectarianism! i see myself as a rather miserable bhaktin of

Lord Krsna, but that is because it was He who called

me to his lap. <br><br>Each of us has an Ishta

calling us, in the perfect form for our devotion. The

christians have theirs, the muslims theirs, and mine is Lord

Gopinatha. Sectarianism is just another "ism" that separates

us from pure love of Godhead. It is childishness

that says, "My God can beat up your God!My guru is

better than yours!" <br><br>i try to use spiritual eyes

when i visit other temples and i will never forget

that Srimati Kalima was the one who blessed me with my

Vaishnava Guru! She did not argue that a Shavite guru might

be better since Her husband is Lord Shiva. She knew

Who called me and respected that. I will always lay

hibiscus flowers at Her lotus feet for this reason. In

fact, i believe that when you do not pray to Srimati

Radha for Krsna's mercy, Srimati Kalima comes to

console you. Perhaps that is why my Vaishnava Guru gave

me the spiritual name "Paramesari devi" another name

for Durga and not a Vaishnava name. What did he see

in me with his divine spiritual eyes?<br><br>om tat

sat<br>>:*)