Inquiries Into the Absolute: Digest 129, Seeing personal form of

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Digest 129, July 24th, 2005. Answers by His Holiness Romapada Swami Maharaja

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Seeing personal form of Krsna beyond the impersonal by mercy of devotees

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Question:

Is it by the mercy of Sri Krishna that those with Brahman realization are

provided with `divine sunglasses', to see through His bright illumination to

worship His personal feature?

 

Answer:

It is by the combined mercy of Krishna and guru, wherein the guru is the

conduit or the instrument of Krishna's mercy.

 

Your question is nicely discussed in Madhurya Kadambini, Chapter 1. Visvanatha

Chakravarti Thakur explores the question "How does bhakti arise?" After

proposing a number of possibilities and then refuting each one, he concludes

that "Bhakti arises when one receives bhakti from a merciful bhakta, who is

empowered directly by Krishna to distribute Himself to others." In fact, this

is what bhaktas who are laden with compassion do!!

 

Your question very much resembles Mantra 15 of Sri Isopanisad

(http://vedabase.net/iso/15/en/). But where does the person offering the prayer

get the notion to offer such a prayer, to begin with? From the descending mercy

of a spiritual guide, teacher, or guru.

 

Position of Lord Siva

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His Holiness Romapada Swami has addressed questions regarding Lord Siva

previously (s to read the responses)

 

Digest 43 http://iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?digestname=digest43

Q1: In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna claims Himself to be the only supreme Lord. But

in Siva Gita (which is in Padmapurana) Siva claims that He is the only supreme

Lord. Various puranas praise various Lords to be the supreme absolute truth.

This is very much confusing and this suggests the possibility of scriptures

being man made. It is obvious that Bhagavad Gita or Srimad Bhagavatam are not

special since Siva Gita and other puranas can sufficiently counter the claims

made by the above said scriptures. So how to know who the Almighty is?

 

Digest 91 http://iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?digestname=digest91

Q1: In addressing persons who are worshipers of Lord Siva, we find them

sometimes quoting Ramayana as one proof that Siva is supreme. They refer to the

lila of Ram's worshiping Siva before going to Lanka. How to best respond to

this line of reasoning?

 

Digest 12 http://iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?digestname=digest12

Q6: My question is related to Lord Shiva. He is considered to be the topmost

Vaishnava. When a devotee or Vaishnava sannyasi comes, we are eager to take

their association but we don't go to Shiva temples to take his association.

Similarly we observe fasting till noon on appearance and disappearance days of

acharyas. But we don't do such a thing on Shivaratri (the festival marking Lord

Shiva drinking poison). Why is this so?

 

It is very difficult to understand Lord Siva's exalted position from our very

insignificant position and this is the case even for great learned scholars.

However, it is possible for us to hear from the disciplic succession and try to

understand to a limited degree.

 

Summary: Lord Siva is usually not a living entity like us (which other demigods

are). Lord Siva is a qualitative incarnation of Lord Krsna for the purpose of

impregnating the living entities into material nature and for the destruction

of the universe. Lord Siva is also known as the father of the universe.

 

Reference: In this connection it is important to consider the following purport

by Srila Prabhupada for a complete summary description of the position of Lord

Siva: http://vedabase.net/cc/madhya/20/273/en, and the following description of

Lord Siva's position in relation to Lord Krsna given by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta

Sarasvati Thakura (Srila Prabhupada's spiritual master)

http://vedabase.net/bs/5/45/en

 

Everything and everyone in existence comes from Lord Krsna (Srimad Bhagavatam

1.1.1 (http://www.vedabase.net/sb/1/1/1/en), and Brahma Samhita 5.1

(http://www.vedabase.net/bs/5/1/en)) and has delegated power from Lord Krsna.

The group of persons deriving their power from Lord Krsna includes everyone,

yet some persons are given greater power based on their higher qualification.

 

 

This digest on the web:

http://iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?digestname=digest129

 

All previous digests in one file (with responses to about 400 questions):

http://iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?digestname=digest00

 

Responses to Some Frequently Asked Questions (Karma, free-will, demigods, Lord

Siva, why are we here, how to control the mind, Deity worship, marriage, Jesus

Christ, spiritual and material relationships and morality of Lord Krsna's

conjugal pastimes, spiritual master, spirit soul/jiva/living entity):

http://www.iskcondc.org/cgi-bin/renderphilo.pl?digestname=digest999_faq

 

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