Bhakti Caru Maharaja - about Pope and other...

[Guest guest]

Bhakti Caru Maharaja,

Hillsborough, North Carolina

 

 

Guru Maharaja arrived this morning on an early flight from Dallas.

Upon getting off the aircraft and walking toward baggage claim, Guru

Maharaja commented with a smile, "It's nice to be back in North Carolina

after such a long time. I spent a lot of time here."

 

He added, "North Carolina is a nice place, a little laid back."

 

Guru Maharaja happily greeted the group of devotees who were waiting for him

at the exit, all softly singing Hare Krsna with mrdanga and karatas in

anticipation.

 

At Krsna das' house, Guru Maharaja freshened up and honored prasad. At the

table, Krsna das Prabhu asked Guru Maharaja about Pope Jean Paul II. "What

is the Vedic view of him?" he asked.

 

Guru Maharaja replied, "There is a difference between the position of 'pope'

and the person occupying the position. What is the person like, what is his

character, that is the question."

 

Guru Maharaja said, "He was a good man."

 

Krsna das Prabhu added, "He had good intentions."

 

Guru Maharaja said, "He had good intentions. However, if you put your finger

in the fire without knowledge that the fire burns, will your finger get

burned? Similarly," he added, "he had good intentions, but he ate cow flesh.

That is the thing. I heard he especially liked veal. So he may have gotten a

lot of recognition down here, but how the controllers of the universe see

him, that may be different."

 

Guru Maharaja said, "One may get recognition in this world, but what about

recognition in THAT world? Recognition in this world is not important. How

Krsna sees us, that is important." Guru Maharaja remarked, "There is so much

ignorance nowadays." Elaborating on this point, Guru Maharaja said, "I heard

that when the Dalai Lama visited a famous bishop or Cardenal, the Dalai Lama

insisted on having cow flesh."

 

Guru Maharaja then spoke about charity in the mode of ignorance. He said,

"Srila Prabhupada gives the example of a little boy who is suffering from

Typhoid. The doctor tells his parents not to give him any solid food. They

comply with his instructions. But the child cries, wanting to eat solid

things. Then the neighbors hear the child crying and begin to think, "how

cruel are the parents of this child!' They sneak into the house and feed the

poor child solid food. They are well-meaning, but the result is that the

child dies."

 

Guru Maharaja continued, "Or like mother Theresa. They say she was a saint.

But she took simple Indians who were vegetarians and turned them into

meat-eaters."

 

Turning back to the Pope and the Catholic Church, Krsna das asked, "So, does

that mean that all the millions of people who are mourning for the Pope are

in ignorance?"

 

Guru Maharaja replied, "How many people mourned when Marylin Monroe died?"

[We had to laugh at this remark.]

 

Guru Maharaja said, "The problem with Christianity is that there is no

information about who God the Father is. They don't know what He looks like,

what He does, what His abode looks like, etc..." Also," he added, "they

confuse Jesus with God. The first split in Christianity was actually born of

this very same issue. The Greek Orthodox refused to agree with the Catholics

who began to say that Jesus was himself God. If Jesus is God, then my

question is, "If Jesus is God, then to WHOM was he praying when he was being

crucified?"

 

Guru Maharaja added, "Jesus always spoke about 'The Father.' He never said

that he himself was God. Rather, he said, "The Father and I are one." And he

also added, "I have so many more things to tell you, but you are not ready."

"It is like education," he added. "You have primary education, high school,

college, doctorate, and so on. The problem begins when a primary school

students affirm that primary education is supreme. That is why there are so

many religious wars. Jesus was preaching to very barbaric fishermen and

nomads. Therefore he had to try to bring them to the level of being

gentlemen. That's why he emphasized, 'thou shall not kill, thou shall not

commit adultery.'

 

Guru Maharaja added, "But there is no need to tell a gentleman, "Do not

kill," because the gentleman does not kill to begin with, nor does he commit

adultery." Guru Maharaja said, "First become a gentleman, and then become

spiritual."

 

I asked, "How come we sometimes see individuals who are devotees, but who

still are not gentlemen?"

 

Guru Maharaja replied, "Srila Prabhupada created their good fortune and is

giving them a chance."

 

I asked, "Is there any question of devotion to God when one does not know,

even theoretically, that Krsna is God?"

 

Guru Maharaja told me, "Can you fall in love with a girl if you have no

information about her, you don't know what she looks like, you don't know

her personality, you've never seen her or heard anything about her?"

 

I replied, "No."

 

Guru Maharaja said, "Similarly, how can they love God when they don't have

any information about Him? Their love is blind."

 

Guru Maharaja continued, "The Catholic Church has a big agenda to convert

everyone to Catholicism." He remarked, "To bring someone who is completely

Godless closer to God is good, but on the other hand, to bring people who

are already close to God away from God is bad." [Guru Maharaja was referring

to individuals, in India for example, who are already exposed to the Vedas,

to Lord Krsna, and who become converted into Catholics.]

 

Guru Maharaja said, "People who follow the Vedic understanding are close to

Krsna. But the Catholic Church has no information of Krsna. So when a

Christian converts someone who is situated in the Vedic knowledge to a

doctrine which provides no information at all about Krsna, how Krsna must

feel about that?"

 

Guru Maharaja concluded, "Our lesson is that we can be grateful; due to

Srila Prabhupada's teachings we have received the right understanding of

what this human form of life is actually meant for."